Today’s post was written by David Langbart, archivist in Research Services at the National Archives at College Park, MD.
In October 1960, in the last months of the Eisenhower Administration, the Civil Service Commission announced the establishment of the Federal Woman’s Award for outstanding achievement by women in the Federal career service to be administered by the Board of Trustees, Federal Woman’s Award. The award was announced in the following press release:
A pamphlet about the award further noted:
Eligibility may be based upon achievements having an important effect on a major government program, or it may be based upon the specific outstanding accomplishments which have made, or are making an important contribution to administrative, social, scientific, or technical progress in the work of a Federal agency. Eligibility for an award shall further depend upon performance which has demonstrated a high degree of personal integrity, honesty, judgment, and quality of either leadership, or sustained individual performance.
Agencies were allowed to nominate up to three individuals by December 9, 1960; nominations were to include the following information:
- name, grade, organizational title, location
- summary of the nominee’s achievement
- highlights of work experience
- education and degrees
- honors – especially those granted by the nominating agency
- detailed statement of the basis for the nomination
Within the Department of State, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs J. Graham Parsons nominated Ruth Bacon for the award on November 23, 1960. In his recommendation, Parsons noted that Bacon “has given conspicuous and tireless service in the Department of State over a period of twenty-one years and is, in my view, richly deserving of this honor. I have personally been acquainted with her work for a number of years and no one surpasses her in all-around effectiveness in the performance of her assigned duties.” Attached to his recommendation was the following memorandum providing the answers to the points noted above.
A press release of January 4, 1961, announced the names of the five persons who agreed to serve on the panel to select the awardees.
In a letter of January 31, 1961, Barbara Gunderson, Commissioner of the Civil Service Commission and chair of the Federal Women’s Award Board, informed Secretary of State Dean Rusk that Bacon was to be among the first group of six winners of the award. On February 2, Rusk sent the following EYES ONLY telegram (drafted by J. Graham Parsons) to Bacon at the U.S. embassy in Wellington, New Zealand, where she was serving as the Deputy Chief of Mission, notifying her of the award.
As she could not attend the February 24 awards banquet in person, she designated her sister Dorothy Bacon, a distinguished economics professor at Smith College, to accept the award on her behalf.
Subsequent to her service in New Zealand, Bacon returned to the Department of State in 1965, when she became the director of the Office of Regional Affairs in the Bureau of Far Eastern Affairs. After retiring from the Department of State in 1968, Bacon served on the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in 1974, attended the World Conference on Women (Mexico City) in 1975, and was director of the US Center for International Women’s Year from 1973 to 1976. Ruth Bacon died in 1985.
The award was discontinued after 1976.
Sources: All documents displayed or referred to are found under file designation “123 Bacon, Ruth” in the 1960-63 segment of Central Decimal File (NAID 302021), part of RG 59: General Records of the Department of State.