Ivanka has been an outspoken advocate for certain key women’s issues. During her speech at the Republican National Convention last July, Ivanka made a case for equal pay for women, better child care options, and paid maternity leave: “As a mother myself of three young children, I know how hard it is to work while raising a family,” she said. “And I also know I’m far more fortunate than most. American families need relief. Policies that allow women with children to thrive should not be novelties, they should be the norm.”
However, Ivanka faced criticism when, in August, the Washington Post reported that G-III (the company that designs and distributes her clothing line) does not offer its employees paid maternity leave. (Ivanka does not run G-III and therefore has no say over the company’s policies.) A spokesperson for Ivanka told TIME that the Ivanka Trump brand, her own company, offers eight weeks of paid maternity leave and said, “She can only be responsible for her own business and try to set an example for others.”
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After she told Good Morning America in September that the eight-week maternity leave policy applies to all of the employees at the Trump Organization, The Huffington Post revealed that the employees at Trump hotels in multiple locations, including New York and Palm Beach, do not have the option to take paid maternity leave. Deirdre Rosen, the Trump Organization’s senior vice president of human resources, told Huffington Post that policies and practices at the company vary from property to property.
That same day, Ivanka had a tense interview with Cosmopolitan when a reporter asked her about why the plan didn’t address paternity leave. Although Ivanka tried to avoid the question, the reporter repeated her question three times, and eventually asked what the plan would mean for same-sex couples. “The policy is fleshed out online, so you can go see all the elements of it. But the original intention of the plan is to help mothers in recovery in the immediate aftermath of childbirth,” she responded.
When asked about her father’s prior comments about pregnancy being inconvenient for business, Ivanka retorted, “I think you have a lot of negativity in these questions, and I think my father has put forth a very comprehensive and really revolutionary plan to deal with a lot of issues. So I don’t know how useful it is to spend too much time with you on this if you’re going to make a comment like that.” She cut off the interview shortly thereafter.
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