Lyndon B. Johnson photo

Remarks at a Reception for Recently Appointed Women in Government.

April 13, 1964

Members of the Cabinet and their wives, ladies and gentlemen:

There are some days, all too few in number, when being President is all pleasure. Today seems to be one of them. I just attended a baseball game and returned to find my house filled with my favorite kind of people. This is a very satisfying and happy moment for me. I believe that we are marking a most significant milestone.

In this country it took us nearly 150 years to accept the simple truth of what Susan B. Anthony used to preach when she said: "It was 'We the People,' not 'We the White, Male Citizens,' nor "We the Male Citizens,' but 'We the Whole People,' who formed this union." In 1920, less than a lifetime ago, women won the right of suffrage. I realize that some are still inclined to have second thoughts about the so-called emancipation of women, possibly including some of the husbands that are present in this room.

But it is hard to argue with history. It is since that time, since women became an active participating force in our society, that the United States has really made the greatest gains and risen to the greatest heights of achievement of any nation in the history of the world. And I don't regard this as coincidence. Now I am not one who believes that all intelligence and skill is for some obscure reason confined entirely to the male population.

Providence has distributed brains and skills pretty evenly over our people. To conclude that women are unfitted to the risk of our historic society seems to me the equivalent of closing male eyes to female facts. We need skill and intelligence and capacity for leadership. We need dedication and application and we need them wherever we find them. If we neglect these talents, our society is the first loser.

But, equally, the women whose gifts are suppressed and passed over are losers, too. And in our open democratic society, the frustration of any of our citizens is a source of loss to all of our citizens. All too often the top jobs of industry, the top jobs of business, and the professions, and even the academic world are closed against the really capable and talented woman.

We can open, and we are opening, the doors of public service and I think this is going to influence some other sectors as well. My whole aim in promoting women and picking out more women to serve in this administration is to underline our profound belief that we can waste no talent, we can frustrate no creative power, we can neglect no skill in our search for an open and just and challenging society. There is no place for discrimination of any kind in American life. There must be places for citizens who can think and create and act.

So I greet you today not so much as women, but as enfranchised citizens and coworkers in our great and our exciting national life. I could discuss the subject at some length, but having observed some glances from the front row, Mrs. Johnson, I remember what was once said that American women expect to find in their husbands a perfection that English women only hope to find in their butlers.

And since brevity is the beginning of perfection in our household, let me now conclude by saying to each of the more than 150 women honored here today, thank you very much. Thank you for responding to the call of your country. And to the husbands present, may I say that I hope, I earnestly and genuinely hope, that you will overcome your present feelings towards this present administration before next November.

Note: The President spoke at 5:30 p.m. in the East Room at the White House. Judge Burnita Shelton Matthews then administered the oath of office to the following appointees: Mrs. Katharine Elkus White, Ambassador-designate to Denmark, Mrs. Dorothy H. Jacobson, Assistant Secretary of Agriculture for International Affairs, Mrs. Mary D. Keyserling, Director, Women's Bureau of the Department of Labor, Burnett Hennington, member of the U.S. Water Pollution Control Board, Audrey Stern Hess, member of the Advisory Board, federal Reformatory for Women, Mrs. Harvey B. Schechter, member of the Peace Corps National Advisory Council, Mrs. Patricia R. Harris, member of the Study Commission on Statehood for Puerto Rico, and Mrs. India Edwards, Special Consultant to the Secretary of Labor on Youth Employment.

Mrs. White, on behalf of the newly appointed officials, spoke briefly. The text of her remarks was released.

Lyndon B. Johnson, Remarks at a Reception for Recently Appointed Women in Government. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/239385

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