Ladies:
I want to welcome you and congratulate you and express my very genuine admiration for your unusual contributions to our beloved country. When I read your biographies, I was again impressed by the extraordinary range of opportunities that the Government offers to talented women. And there is one thing we are insistent on around here and that is that we not have just stag Government.
We all know that in the past the capabilities of women have not always been recognized. I intend to see to it that there is an even greater expansion of opportunities for women in the days ahead. As Lady Bird and I wired Katie, at the award banquet, I believe a woman's place is not only in the home, but in the House and the Senate and throughout the Government service. We are very proud of you women doers. You are the living proof of our confidence in you.
As I have jocularly commented occasionally, Lincoln took a poll of his Cabinet one time and he went down all the list. Each voted nay, and finally when they got to the President he voted aye, and announced the vote and said, "The ayes have it." But when I have a vote in my house and we go down the list, if there are three ayes I know I had better say, "The ayes have it."
So, we welcome you to this house. This is a great treat for us. It is a great honor to you. It is a great benefit to America.
Thank you very much.
Note: The President spoke at noon in the fish Room at the White House. In the second paragraph he referred to Katie Louchheim, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, who presented the women to the President.
Recipients of the federal Woman's Award were Selene Gifford, Assistant Commissioner (Community Services), Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior; Dr. Gertrude Blanch, scientist with the Applied Mathematics Research Laboratory at Wright Patterson Air force Base, Dayton, Ohio; Dr. Evelyn Anderson, research scientist with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in California; Elizabeth F. Messer, Assistant to the Deputy Director, Bureau of Retirement and Insurance, Civil Service Commission; Dr. Margaret Wolman Schwartz, Director, Office of foreign Assets, Department of the Treasury; and Patricia G. van Delden, Deputy Public Affairs Officer, U.S. Information Agency in Bonn, Germany, and Attache, U.S. Embassy.
The awards were presented at a banquet held at the Statler Hilton Hotel in Washington on the evening of March 2.
Lyndon B. Johnson, Remarks to the Winners of the Federal Woman's Award Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/239719
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