Regardless of your political beliefs, there is no denying that Ivanka Trump, the eldest daughter of the Republican Party’s Presidential nominee Donald Trump, is a force to be reckoned with. Ivanka, while currently serving as the Executive Vice President of Development & Acquisitions at the Trump Organization, has become a major player in her father’s presidential campaign. But, all of her business accomplishments aside, it is her personal accomplishments that have women everywhere awe inspired.
Born to billionaire business magnate Donald Trump and his first wife, Ivana, a Czechoslovakian athlete and socialite, there is no doubting that Ivanka was raised in a life of luxury and privilege. After attending some of the country’s most prestigious prep schools, Trump spent two years at Georgetown University before transferring to the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. Upon graduating cum laude with a B.S. in Economics, Trump jumped head first into the family business, spending a great deal of time getting acquainted with the company’s various sects before being named to her current position of Executive Vice President of Development & Acquisitions.
With her business savvy and prominence already established, Trump utilized her position of power to champion an impressive amount of social and political causes. Despite her support for causes such as Habitat for Humanity and United Cerebral Palsy, it is the empowerment of women that truly lies in Trump’s generously sized heart. In 2007, she launched a clothing line, catering to the everyday professional women, and a jewelry collection for women to purchase for themselves. In a 2015 interview, she explains, “the woman I’m dressing is young and in the early stages of her career. She’s polished and professional and embraces her femininity. She is value-oriented… She is also someone who’s constantly multi-tasking.”
For Trump, this idea of multi-tasking has transcended these fashions and inspired her latest passion-project, Women Who Work. Centralized on her website, IvankaTrump.com, she explains, “the modern working woman looks fundamentally different from women in previous generations. For the first time in history, we’re able to embrace the fact that our lives are multidimensional. We’re doing work we love, work that inspires us, and we’re also pursuing our passions and making them priorities.” Initially advised that the idea of “women and work” would not “resonate with a millennial audience,” Trump has dedicated herself to changing that perspective. The website, which features real-life narratives of high-powered women, posts articles and guides ranging from “A Primer on Grown-Up Documents” to “The Style Guide: 3 Ways to Wear Spring Prints to Work.” Upon a simple search of the #WomenWhoWork on Instagram, an astonishing 71,518 posts are found, ranging from every-day women to the likes of Blake Lively who praised, “Hats off to all the #WomenWhoWork –whether in the office, on the field, or at home as mama CEOS.”
While Ivanka Trump has continually established herself as a forward thinking power house, even claiming that despite her father’s position in the Republican Party she, “like many of my fellow millennials… do not consider myself categorically Republican or Democrat,” it is her work on redefining the role of women that stands out. With influential friends such as Chelsea Clinton describing that, “there’s nothing skin-deep about Ivanka,” there’s no doubting that Women Who Work is just the tip of the iceberg for this Trump.
