Ivanka Trump hails Abe’s measures to boost women

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, left, and U.S. presidential advisor Ivanka Trump pose for photographers at the World Assembly for Women in Tokyo on Friday. Pool photo / The Yomiuri Shimbun

Ivanka Trump, an advisor to U.S. President Donald Trump, took the stage at an international conference in Tokyo on Friday, advocating for women’s active participation in society.

Calling women’s economic empowerment her “focus for many years,” the U.S. president’s daughter expressed her willingness to use her influence and experience as an entrepreneur.

“Ensuring that 50 percent of our population will fully participate in the workforce is critical to strengthening our communities and growing our prosperity. That is why, after my father’s election, I decided to leave my businesses to work in government to advance policies and initiatives that empower women to fully participate in the economy,” she said at the fourth World Assembly for Women, which was launched in 2014 as part of efforts by the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to achieve a “society where women shine.”

Trump delivered the speech ahead of her father’s arrival in Japan on Sunday, his first visit to the country since taking office.

Abe joined her at the conference, stressing his “seriousness” in empowering women. He said 1.5 million women have joined the workforce in Japan over the past five years through support measures such as expanding the capacities of day care centers. The number of female executives at Japanese companies has also more than doubled in the past five years, he added.

“‘Womenomics’ has become a powerful force to boost our nation’s economic growth,” Abe said.

Trump, the mother of three children, praised Abe’s progressive measures to support working mothers and called for family-oriented policies in her country too, as many women have been forced to leave jobs to raise children.

“We don’t label men ‘working men,’ and it is my hope that by the time my daughter Arabella grows into a woman, she will not be defined by whether she works inside or outside the home. She will simply be a woman afforded the same opportunities as her male peers and equipped with the education and support she needs to fulfill her unique potential,” she said. “This is how I believe we will empower women.”

Meanwhile, Abe announced that Japan will contribute $50 million to the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi), a World Bank facility focused on promoting women’s entrepreneurship in developing countries.

The facility, which was unveiled in July, provides both financial and nonfinancial resources, including loans, technical assistance and access to mentors. The World Bank aims to raise $1 billion for this global fund. Ivanka Trump played a key role in creating the fund.

According to World Bank figures, about 70 percent of woman-owned small and medium enterprises in developing countries don’t have access to the capital they need.

This issue was addressed at a panel discussion held at the conference later the same day. Financing was cited as a major challenge panelists encountered when starting their businesses.

One of the panelists, Patricia Veringa-Gieskes, founder and chief executive officer of The Job Factory in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, said high criteria for financing, such as having collateral, hamper women’s business opportunities. “When the banks come to us, we don’t need them anymore,” she said.