Ivanka forced to defend Trump

Ivanka Trump, making her overseas debut as the US "First Daughter" at a women’s summit in Berlin on Tuesday, was forced to defend her father’s attitude towards women.

Sitting on a G20 panel with female leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Donald Trump’s daughter drew chuckles from the audience when she praised "my father’s advocacy" on the issue and his role as "a tremendous champion of supporting families and enabling them to thrive".

The panel moderator, a finance journalist, interjected, saying: "Some attitudes toward women your father has publicly displayed... might leave one questioning whether he is such an empowerer for women."

"I’ve certainly heard the criticism from the media and that’s been perpetuated," replied the 35-year-old Ivanka.

"I think the thousands of women who have worked with and for my father for decades, when he was in the private sector, are testament to his belief and solid conviction in the potential of women and their ability to do the job as well as any man."

Ivanka, a glamorous former model who started her own fashion line, has worked for her billionaire-father’s company and now has an office in the White House.

She said her father "encouraged me and enabled me to thrive".

"I grew up in a house where there were no barriers to what I could accomplish beyond my own perseverance and my own tenacity ... There was no difference for me and my brothers."

Merkel is seen to be cultivating a good relationship with Ivanka as a key communication channel with the Trump presidency.

News magazine Der Spiegel saw the meeting as "a summit of the two women who are supposed to moderate Donald Trump -- if that is even possible".

It said "the hopes of the free world rest on the two women because they supposedly have the power to influence the man who looks down on women".

The Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily said that for Merkel to "have lured Ivanka is a veritable coup for the chancellor".

Even though there are higher-ranking US officials, it said, "it would be difficult to find a more important and influential representative".

Ivanka has been accused in the United States of benefiting from nepotism, and was ridiculed on the "Saturday Night Live" comedy show for being "complicit" in promoting Trump’s divisive policies.

Undeterred, she has spoken out on women’s empowerment, most recently in a Financial Times op-ed article co-written with World Bank president Jim Yong Kim.

They said only 55 percent of women participate in the paid labour force worldwide and called for better training, improved access to finance and legal changes.