Remarks at the Sixth Annual Federal Woman's Award Ceremony

WE ARE very pleased to welcome you to the White House today. We are proud of you and we congratulate you. Your coming here today serves as a dual reminder to all of us: first, that American women can hold their own in every segment of our national life and, second, less happily, that all too often we withhold the opportunity for them to do so.

Today millions of bright, young women would like to train for professional careers and we discourage them. Today millions of mothers seek gainful employment to provide a better life for their children and yet we discriminate against them. Today millions of women with grown children seek new meaning in their lives through a second career and then we ignore them.

The Federal Government has sought to correct this situation, particularly within its own ranks. Our policy, since I became President, has been to hire and to promote on the basis of ability alone. In that period, the number of women in jobs paying $10,000 or more has already increased by 26 percent. Yet despite such advances and similar advances in the private sector of our country, this problem remains largely unsolved.

The underutilization of American women continues to be the most tragic and the most senseless waste of this century. It is a waste that we can no longer afford. Our economy is crying out for their services. In the next decade alone we will need 900,000 additional school teachers and college instructors; 1 million additional specialists in the health services; 800,000 additional science and engineering technicians; 700,000 additional scientists and engineers; and 4 1/2 million additional State and local employees, exclusive of our teachers.

The requirements in these fields alone will be 110,000 additional trained specialists every month for the next 10 years. That requirement cannot be met by men alone. And unless we begin now to open more and more professions to our women and unless we begin now to train our women to enter those professions, then the needs of our Nation just are not going to be met.

Already we are suffering an acute shortage of nurses. This very moment 60,000 additional nurses in our hospitals and clinics and another 5,000 additional nurses are needed in our Armed Forces. To make sure that these needs are met, to help open the doors of opportunity to every American woman, I am today announcing the establishment of a new group on careers for Women.

This study group will be made up of women whose qualifications, I think, are very amply established--the recipients of the Federal Woman's Award since its establishment 6 years ago. I expect the members of this study group to probe deeply into the problems of the working woman. I want them to tell us which career fields appear to offer the greatest promise for our women.

I want them to tell us what our colleges and universities can do to help young women to prepare and to train for these fields. I want them to tell us what we can do to change the attitudes of employers toward hiring women. I want them to seek new ways of making government service attractive to women who have demonstrated ability.

The time has come for the American woman to take her rightful place in American society. We are about to take a major step toward that goal.

I want to apologize to you for being late on account of conditions that I could not control.

I want to congratulate each of you and all of you, particularly you six women who are the forerunners of what I think is a new era: Miss Fannie M. Boyls of the National Labor Relations Board, Miss Stella Davis of the United States Information Agency, Dr. Jocelyn Gill of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Dr. Ida C. Merriam of the Social Security Administration, Miss Irene Parsons of the Veterans Administration, and Dr. Ruth Van Cleve of the Department of Interior.

You ladies honor your sex and your Government and your professions by your accomplishments. You have risen to the top of your chosen fields in law, in the sciences, in economics, in the foreign service, and in administration. I am confident that you will put your experience and your leadership to good use on behalf of all the women of America and I believe that all the women of America will be encouraged by the example that you have set and by the ability that you have demonstrated.

Thank you very much.