Ivanka Trump Is Starting 2019 With A New Initiative For Women's Empowerment
It's a new year people, which means that change might be on the horizon. While some of us are focusing our energies on completing our new year's resolutions, it looks like the first daughter is already hitting the ground running. In case you've haven't heard, Ivanka Trump's 2019 global women's initiative is all about empowering women economically in the new year. However, the details are still a bit fuzzy. Here's what we know in the meantime.
On Wednesday, Jan. 2, The Associated Press reported that first daughter Ivanka Trump plans to launch a White House effort focusing on empowering women's economic development in 2019. At first, this initiative was reportedly set to launch in early January, but as we enter our 11th day of the government shutdown it's apparently been postponed, with no official launch date rescheduled. In the meantime, the full details of the initiative are being kept under wraps. However, a White House representative tells Elite Daily that the initiative will involve both the public and private sector, and the work of women's economic empowerment is intended to be aligned with the administration's national security strategy.
Per the AP, the initiative will include government departments such as the State Department and the National Security Council, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Adviser John Bolton were scheduled to share remarks at the original launch along with speakers from financial organizations and private businesses such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, Walmart, and Bank of America.
On Jan. 2, Trump shared a statement with the AP about the plan, saying,
I look forward to continuing to work with the interagency and members of Congress on both sides of the aisle to advance women’s access to vocational training, fuel female entrepreneurship and lift legal and social barriers that restrict our full and free economic participation.
This isn't the first time Trump, a White House adviser who has made women's empowerment her signature issue, has tackled women's entrepreneurship and economy. In 2018, Trump actively fought to pass the Women’s Entrepreneurship and Economic Empowerment Act, which was approved by Congress that year. The bipartisan legislation aims to increase efforts to support women-run businesses internationally, while requiring the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to consider women's ability to access assistance.
However, it hasn't always gone well for the first daughter. For example, while Trump championed paid family leave on the campaign trail, in February 2018, she was criticized for pushing a plan that some saw as penalizing women who choose to have children. Elite Daily reached out to the White House for comment, but did not immediately hear back. In 2017, she was also called out for supporting her father, President Donald Trump's, rollback of Obama-era equal pay protections. She said in a statement at the time that while she believed that the "intention was good" and that pay transparency was important, "the proposed policy would not yield the intended results."
In April 2017, Trump met with Planned Parenthood's then-president Cecile Richards to hear Richard's opposition to Donald Trump's push to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Well, according to Richards, both Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, reportedly told Richards that they would make sure the government kept funding Planned Parenthood, but only if the organization stopped performing abortions. Elite Daily reached out the White House for comment about the reported meeting at the time, but did not hear back.
Of course, Trump has dealt with other forms of criticism pertaining to her silence on political matters, poorly timed tweets, and her overall efficiency while working in the White House.
I, for one, hope that 2019 means that this first daughter is going to seriously fight for women's rights this year. After all, a new year can really be a fresh start.
