Donald Trump’s daughter has said the US presidential candidate is a feminist who has “lived” gender equality.
Ivanka Trump, 34, said the Republican candidate had employed women at the highest levels of his businesses.
Ivanka, who works on his campaign and is the Executive Vice President of Development & Acquisitions at the Trump Organization, said her father’s feminist values were “a big reason I am the woman I am today”.
Mr Trump has faced frequent accusations of sexism throughout his election campaign and has consistently polled badly with women in the US. A Fox News poll at the end of June found him to be 19 per cent behind Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton with female voters.
When asked whether she thought her father was a feminist, Ivanka replied: “I do, yes”.
“And it's a big reason I am the woman I am today,” she told The Sunday Times. “He always told me and showed me that I could do anything I set my mind to if I married vision and passion with work ethic. He's also surrounded me with strong female role models who have done just that since I was a little girl.”
“People talk about gender equality,” she added. “He has lived it, he has employed women at the highest levels of the Trump Organisation for decades, so I think it's a great testament to how capable he thinks women are and has shown that his whole life.”
Last summer, Mr Trump came under fire for saying Fox News channel anchor Megyn Kelly had “blood coming out of her wherever” and a month later, he said his then rival, Carly Fiorina, was too ugly to become president.
“Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?“ he told Rolling Stone. “I mean, she's a woman, and I'm not supposed to say bad things, but really folks, come on. Are we serious?”
A recent analysis of Mr Trump’s presidential campaign found that male staffers were being paid a third more than their female counterparts. It also found that women only account for 28 per cent of his total staff.
