White House adviser Ivanka Trump is speaking out on the world stage about the importance of changing workplace culture and government policies in ways that will help women and their families and will produce healthier economies.
President Trump’s daughter delivered that message in an address November 3 at the World Assembly for Women in Tokyo. With the president himself back from his five-nation Asian trip, she will return to the region as leader of the U.S. delegation to the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Hyderabad, India, November 28–30.
The summit, co-sponsored and arranged by the U.S. and Indian governments, will focus on the importance that empowering women and girls plays in building a more prosperous future. Most of the 1,500 participants — aspiring entrepreneurs, mentors, investors and leaders of government and industry — will be women.
“If women close the gap with men in all aspects of work and society, it could add trillions to our annual global [gross domestic product] over the next decade,” Trump told the World Assembly for Women in downtown Tokyo. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe, who had invited her to the event, introduced her.
Trump urged businesses and governments to do more to promote women in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). “Over the coming decades, technologies such as automation and robotics will transform the way we work, and we want to make sure that women can lead in the economy of the future,” she said.
In the summer of 2017, Japan and the United States helped launch the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative. The program provides access to capital, networks and mentorship for women entrepreneurs in developing countries.
In her White House role, Trump has focused on work-life issues, workforce development and on-the-job training programs. “I saw a chance to work on behalf of girls in rural communities and inner cities who, by learning to code or studying robotics, could secure good-paying jobs in our modern economy,” she said.
“She is a role model for women,” Rena Hayakawa, a political science major at Meiji University in Tokyo, told the New York Times as she waited to hear Trump speak.