Our New First Daughter

Give Ivanka Trump a Chance

Color psychologists say green is the color associated with growth, energy, and renewal. Days before the inauguration, in a striking green coat from Oscar de la Renta, Ivanka Trump left her 5th avenue apartment for Washington D.C. She hopped off the United States airplane clutching her youngest son, Theodore, and her daughter Arabella, who always appear to be in deep contemplation. With an Instagram caption that read “Arriving in Washington DC with my family. A very special moment. #MAGA #Inauguration2017,” she announced her arrival to the world.

As is common knowledge by now, Ivanka Trump is the daughter of our current president (sorry to say) Donald Trump. Ivanka modeled when she was younger, for Seventeen magazine, Elle magazine, and even Versace. But Ivanka found models to be “catty” and “ruthless,” so she worked towards readiness for the family business: real estate.

Ivanka graduated from her father’s alma mater, the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Before Trump’s inauguration, she was working with her two brothers Donald Jr. and Eric, and had co-founded the Trump Hotel Collection.

While co-running the family business, she launched a fashion and lifestyle brand, the Ivanka Trump Collection, and its digital counterpart, IvankaTrump.com. The website includes articles such as “Weekly Clicks: Plan a Winter Getaway,” and “5 Yoga Moves to Help You Conquer the Workday.” All these articles are geared towards one thing: helping #WomenWhoWork.

In the #WomenWhoWork initiative, Ivanka Trump shares stories of women like her who are “multidimensional, modern women doing work they love.” Unfortunately her book, “Women Who Work”, has been delayed because of the election. But for information, you can still go to her website: http://www.ivankatrump.com/womenwhowork/.

This initiative is all well and good, as long as she brings it to Washington. With an approval rating of 31% from women, Donald Trump needs his daughter more than ever. But the question of if Ivanka will actually stand up to her father is not as clear as we wish it to be.

Her father needs Ivanka and so do we. Working women need someone in Washington that can advocate for women’s working rights, and since she is so close to Donald Trump, Ivanka is our girl. She is a strong, intelligent woman capable of not only creating her own company, but advocating for working women across the country.

It is no secret Parker doesn’t love Trump, but we need to respect Ivanka. She really is our last chance in this administration. I mean do you really trust Donald Trump or Kellyanne Conway to support your working rights as a woman? I sure don’t. We need to give Ivanka a chance not only because she is capable and ready to make change in D.C. but also because we really don’t have another choice.

But what about Melania, can we trust her? I would not. She has been receding in the White House, resting on her one cyber bullying initiative. Whether that is because she is surprised, liked everyone else, that her her husband actually became president, or another reason, she clearly is not stepping up.

Ivanka has supported her father, and said he is “color blind and gender neutral.” Yet, she also says something like this, “as a citizen, I love what he’s doing. As a daughter, it’s obviously more complicated,” that really confuses us. Do you think he is a sexist pig or not?

I am not trying to say that Ivanka has not been strong enough to stand up own her own, actually quite the opposite. Quite simply, Ivanka was in a tough situation. Naturally, she felt the pressure to support her father. But she also has stronger values about the role women play in our society because she is one of those women leading the way. (Some may argue that her business was as an effect of her father’s success, but that is a debate for another day.) Imagine how much her father’s campaign would be destroyed if she were to denounce her father’s views on women.

But Ivanka has her limits. When the 2005 video was leaked, Ivanka’s response was minimal. “My father’s comments were clearly inappropriate and offensive,” she said, “and I’m glad that he acknowledged this fact with an immediate apology to my family and the American people.” The statement felt like the statement of a publicist, and did not show real concern. Women saw this too, and soon a boycott on Ivanka’s fashion line was launched, using the hashtag #GrabYourWallet, a  play on words from Trump’s vulgar comments, “Grab them by the p—-y.”

Another question a lot of people are talking about is how a woman like Ivanka Trump is going to defend the rights of not only white collar working women, but also the single moms in Nebraska working night shifts at Walmart. Right now we don’t know the answer to this. We don’t know if her actions will exclude the working women of certain classes. She has boasted about being an advocate for working women but hasn’t specified which working women.

In her #WomenWhoWork campaign, there are a lot of CEO’s and co-founders, but not a lot of blue collar working women. Ivanka is trying to create the image that women can hold the highest jobs at work, which is all well and wonderful, but it doesn’t really clarify whether or not she is going to advocate for all women’s working rights.  

We all saw the picture of Ivanka Trump swooning over Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (same Ivanka, same), but that meeting with the Prime Minister and her father was an effort for a bigger goal: to share “the importance of women having a seat at the table.” This meeting also initiated a joint task force to help women in the workplace, looking at issues such as childcare and maternity. Good work, Ivanka, but you gotta keep it up!