WASHINGTON — Gov. Linda Lingle accepted a national award yesterday for the Hawai'i state government's emphasis on promoting diversity and advancing minorities and women in the workplace.

"What we are is what makes this award so appropriate, more than anything else," Lingle said.

Diversity, she said, "is not a statistic with us — it's a way of life."

The governor said Hawai'i is a model for the world of people who come from different backgrounds living and working together.

"Because we intermarried so much, Hawai'i is very unique," she said. "Unlike other places that may say they are diverse because they have all these groups coexisting there, they are not really together in that sense."

"I've been a governor for three years now and a mayor for eight and nobody ever spoke to me about the problem of people coming from somewhere else," she said.

The Business Women's Network, an organization that provides resources for diversity and business women, and Diversity Best Practices present the diversity leadership awards annually in the fields of government, business and education.

Lingle received the award for diversity in government during the groups' annual Diversity and Women Leadership Gala Awards dinner.