Technology should be used more to empower women, says Ivanka Trump at business summit in Hyderabad
The US president’s adviser said that women comprise half of the world’s population and that ‘their issues’ needed to be taken seriously.
United States President Donald Trump’s adviser and daughter Ivanka Trump on Wednesday said that technology offers women entrepreneurs “tremendous opportunity” to grow, ANI reported.
“We are seeing that in terms of the explosive global and domestic growth,” Trump said while addressing the plenary session “We Can Do It! Innovations in Workforce Development and Skills Training” at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Hyderabad. Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had inaugurated the summit on Tuesday.
“Technology is a great driver of entrepreneurship because...it is reducing barriers to start new businesses, and create flexibility around schedule,” she said.
Trump called for better representation in high-value industries and better access to capital, the Hindustan Times reported. She also pointed out that more women work in sectors that are financially under-valued.
She commended women for managing their personal and professional lives well, but added that a “fundamental change was” required to move forward. “Cultural, social, work institutions were not set up with the assumption that there would be two parents in the workforce...So we just have to fundamentally change things,” she said.
Trump added: “Women comprise half of the population...You need to take them and their issues seriously.”
Maintaining diversity ensures that there is better business, she said. “It is a fiscal responsibility of businesses to their shareholders to balance the gender gap in the labour force,” Trump said. “It is proven that 90 cents of a dollar earned by women goes back to the community.”