Remarks on the Status of Women in America.

Mrs. Peterson, Mrs. Louchheim, distinguished delegates and friends:

Here at the White House I have many opportunities to speak to many distinguished visitors. But it is a very rare and very welcome pleasure to meet with a group which is both so distinguished and so attractive as this. In this house where I live, women have a 3 to 1 ratio in their favor. And I don't mind--at least most of the time. But there are moments when; like most husbands and fathers, I wish there were a commission on the status of men to submit some of my grievances to.

I am glad that you could come here today. You represent the commission on the status of women that is created by the Governors of 44 States. When the Governors themselves are here at 5 o'clock this afternoon, I am going to congratulate them on your work which I have been observing.

You are carrying forward in your States and cities the work begun by the National Commission under that very great, grand, and lovely lady--Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt. You are looking at the problems as they exist in your own areas; you are seeking solutions that are appropriate to the people of your own sections. The diversity of your outlook and approach is quite heartening and very helpful.

I could talk to you this morning about statistics--statistics on the status of women in the Federal Government. I am very proud that since becoming President, I have found it possible to, on the basis of merit, appoint 114 women to major positions in this Government, and almost 3,000 other women have received appointments or promotions to the highest grades in our career service.

But statistics are not our first concern. Our first concern must be, and is, people. And in our society, rich and strong and successful as it is, people--people, individual people--face increasingly complex and very severe personal challenges. And I am so glad that you are helping in the search for solutions to some of those challenges, especially those challenges which beset women who are both the breadwinners and the mothers.

While we seek to advance women to their rightful place at the top of the ladder of this society, we must never forget and never neglect those women who stand insecurely and uncertainly on the lower rungs. And I think especially of the mothers who face the uncertainties of the marketplace, the heartbreaking dilemmas of impoverished households, without training, often without motivation, very often without even the barest decencies of life, or even the emouonal support of a husband.

Our society and its success is built around a family unit. And despite all of our advances and all of our gains, we must never neglect the fact that that unit--the family unit--has been attacked and has collapsed among too high a significant number of citizens in this country. This blight has hit a disproportionate number of individuals, particularly in our minority groups--especially the Negro. But it is not confined to one group. It is not confined to one income level. All through our society, in suburbia as well as in the slums, we are challenged to strengthen the family unit and to help our mothers, and especially find meaning for their lives and find answers for their burdening responsibilities.

A President must, in times like these, often weigh decisions that are great and that are grave--and most of the time they are grim. But I am always mindful and I never forget that in our complex and our changing, constantly challenging, society the most urgent human problem facing millions of our citizens is the matter of self, the matter of identity, the matter of purpose in his life. The answers that we help others find to such questions matter greatly to the kind of society that we are going to fashion, and matter greatly to the strength that we will have to meet the great tests of our destiny as a great people.

The American woman has a challenging responsibility to meet in this country, whether she puts her knowledge to use in her home community or in Washington, matters very little. What really does matter is that the collective wisdom of women never be lost and never be left unused as we face the serious tests and the soaring promises before us now.

And there are many sources of strength that a President must call upon and must summon in trying periods, and I am happy to say that in this great land of ours I have never found those strengths wanting, and I have never found them hesitant. But I know of no more inspiring and stimulating and confidence-building and tenacious contributions that have been made to me in the 20 months than those that have come from the women of our land--the grandmothers, the mothers, the wives, the daughters, the sweethearts, yes, even the babies.

I have on my desk a stack of letters that involve distress, depression, death, wounds-most of them relate to Viet-Nam where our men are out there trying to help other people have their freedom just as we obtained ours almost 200 years ago. One lady told me, she said:

"We just had 7 months together, but, oh, what a beautiful 7 months it was, and I am proud that I picked the kind of a husband that loved his country enough that he would give his life to try to see that other peoples of other lands had the choice that we have in this country."

Another mother wrote me and said that her boy had lost his leg and had a little difficulty getting it replaced, where he could walk without great pain, but that he could endure that if I could only get him reassigned back to Viet-Nam where he could go and carry on with his boys against the problems that they face there.

Another lady wrote me the other day and said she is from a southern State, and she said:

"I want to tell you how proud I am of our country and our Government, and our Congress, and our President for standing up and facing the enemy and not appeasing and not putting off, and not letting happen to us what happened in World Wars I and II-going on until we almost lose before we decide what has happened." She said: "I have 3 boys and one of them died in Viet-Nam, the other one was wounded yesterday in the Dominican Republic, and the third one enlisted to be a paratrooper, to take his training in Texas. And I want to tell you how proud I am of the leadership that is coming." And that was just too much for me. I picked up the phone and said, "Get me that lady up here. I want to talk to her because she has something I need for the problems that I face."

She came, she saw, and she conquered. When she went away, I felt more equal to my responsibilities and more concerned and more compassionate about all of the people in this country.

I looked yesterday at a number of women that I would hope could serve on the highest Court of our land--where one has never served. I didn't select one because when I do, I want it to be absolutely without question the best person--male or female-available for that post. I have appointed some women to the Federal judiciary, some to high places in the executive department, some to the Atomic Energy Commission.

The one thing I need from you more than anything else, aside from your leadership in your local communities, is to take your eyes and your ears, and your head and your heart, and your heels, and try to develop for me the most outstanding women in this country that could be available to lead the people of this country. There are many places that we need to fill if we only could find the brilliant, the trained, the mind and heart, that is out there that we just haven't been able to put our fingers on, and you can do that for me. If you don't get the kind of response from me, you take it up with Lady Bird, because she and Liz Carpenter mount that doorway all the time and put questionnaires to me nearly every day about what I have done for women lately.

Thank you for coming. God bless you all.