The crowd at the W20 summit in Berlin was not impressed with the first daughter blaming the media for allegations of sexism on the part of her father. Trump said her father has employed thousands of women over the years.
Image: Reuters/H. Hanschke
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Ivanka Trump defends her father at the W20 summit
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Ivanka Trump was met with jeers from the audience of a female empowerment summit in Berlin on Tuesday when she tried to defend her father's attitude towards women.
The moderator asked if US President Donald Trump could really be seen as a champion of equal rights. The question alluded to the controversy that erupted last October, when leaked audio recordings of Trump bragging about sexually assaulting women caused a firestorm of controversy during the presidential campaign.
The unusual life of Ivanka Trump
From rich kid to runway model to first daughter and now offical White House employee - Ivanka Trump's life has been all but conventional. Here are some pictures of her unorthodox trajectory.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/J. Szenes
Child of divorce
12-year-old Ivanka Trump and her father, business magnate Donald Trump, peek over the crowd at the U.S. Open in New York, 1994. Ivanka Marie Trump was born in 1981 as the second child of Czech-American model Ivana Trump and Donald. Her parents divorced when she was 10 years old.
Image: picture alliance/ASSOCIATED PRESS/R. Frehm
Patchwork family
Ivanka Trump, holding her younger half-sister Tiffany, takes a picture with Donald Trump and his second wife Marla on her father's 50th birthday. Ivanka is one of four siblings.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/A. Savignano
Teenage model
16-year-old Ivanka Trump closes Thierry Mugler's haute couture show in Paris, 1997. Trump started modeling at the early age of 15 for Mugler and the likes of Versace and Paco Rabanne.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Seeking a role model
Teenage Ivanka Trump looks at her father, the multi-billionaire Donald Trump, at a polo club in Bridgehampton, New York, 1997.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/ipol Grant
Multi-million business woman
Ivanka Trump speaks during the Ivanka Trump Collection runway launch in New York in 2012. Trump made a name for herself with her own multi-million-dollar businesses. She has sold everything from diaper bags and baby shoes to clothing and jewelry.
Image: picture alliance/abaca/D. Van Tine
Partners in crime
Ivanka und Donald Trump laugh at the Trump Tower Mall opening in Istanbul, 2012. Ivanka joined the family business in 2005 and, together with her two brothers Donald Jr. and Eric, has been acting as executive vice-president of the Trump Organization. She announced she would be taking a formal leave of absence from both the Trump Organization after her father took office.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/T. Bozoglu
Family life
Ivanka Trump, and her husband Jared Kushner step off of Air Force One with their children as they arrive in West Palm Beach, 2017. Trump and Kushner got married in 2009 and have three children together.
Image: picture alliance/AP Images/W. Lee
Leading role in Trump campaign
Ivanka Trump addresses supporters of her father's campaign in South Carolina, 2016. She had a central role in Donald Trump's campaign and has been regarded as a mobilizer for female voters in support of Trump.
Image: picture alliance/AP Photo/A. Sanz
Way into the White House
Ivanka Trump und German Chancellor Angela Merkel whisper during a roundtable discussion in the Cabinet Room of the White House in March 2017. Last week the president's daughter came under fire for announcing she would become an advisor, without a specific title, but with an office in the White House.
Following criticism from ethics experts of her informal role in the White House, Ivanka Trump announced on Wednesday, she will become an official government employee. Her work as a presidential family member taking office in the White House, alongside her husband, continues to raise eyebrows.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/J. Szenes
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In response, Ivanka cited the number of women whom her father has employed in senior positions at his companies and his support of her own business career. Before this, however, she riled the audience by deflecting some of the blame for the scandal towards journalists.
"I certainly heard the criticism from the media, and that's been perpetuated," she said, to loud boos from the audience at the Women20 (W20) conference in Berlin.
Trump went on: "Thousands of women who have worked with and for my father…are a testament to his belief and solid conviction in the potential of women and their ability to do the job as well as any man."
Sitting next to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Christine LaGarde, Trump added that "I grew up in a house where there were no barriers to what I could accomplish…there was no difference for me and my brothers."
Ivanka Trump defends her father at the W20 summit
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Trump vague on father's policies
The first daughter has made the economic empowerment of women a policy issue that she clearly claims to fight for. During a speech at the Republican National Convention last year, she promised to push for paid family leave and better childcare options for working parents.
However, when asked concretely about her father's plans to tackle inequality, Trump was vague. She said only that it was a priority for the administration to address the gender imbalance in the sciences and to break down "stifling" regulations, without elaborating which kind.
When asked earlier in the panel if she considered herself a feminist, Trump answered more emphatically in the positive than Merkel or LaGarde, though she added that the term had "become so loaded," that it "feels exclusionary of others."
Trump was furthered pressed to answer whether she was abroad representing herself a member of the US government or as a businesswoman. "Certainly not the latter," she said, but added that the role of being the president's daughter as well as one of his assistants was "rather unfamiliar," but that she was enjoying the "remarkable, incredible journey."