Ivanka Trump: Need to think of women’s issues as human issues

The 8th edition of the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Hyderabad began its second day with a plenary session on the issue ‘Innovations in Workforce Development and Skills Training’.

With the theme of the Summit, ‘Women first, prosperity for all’, the session on Wednesday aims to boost female participation in the workforce.

Being hosted by NITI Aayog in partnership with US government, the three-day event is attended by 1,500 entrepreneurs from 170 countries with around 350 participants from the US.

Addressing the plenary session on ‘We Can Do It! Innovations in Workforce Development and Skills Training’, Ivanka Trump said, “Women make up half of the world’s population. Need to think of these issues, not as women’s issues but human issues.”

The session is being moderated by Minister for IT E&C KT Rama Rao and has ICICI Bank, Managing Director and CEO, Chanda Kochhar, Cherie Blaire, and Karen Quintos in attendance.

Ivanka further said, “One thing I’d like to throw out there is that these aren’t women’s issues, we are half the population so we need to start thinking about them as critical issues.”

She also brought up the issue of building policies for the modern working family, “We need a policy that supports the modern working family."

Cherie Blair, founder of Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, CBE, QC spoke at the plenary session, “If we get to do anything in this world, we’ll do something about men… Men need to understand that women do face obstacles.”

Speaking on the need for women to build their confidence, “Women need the 3C’s Confidence, Capabilities, access to Capital…Men need to understand that women are their equals."

Chanda Kochhar stressed the need to provide an environment to empower women, “We don’t have special policies for women. But we focus on creating a work environment for women, so they feel confident that it's on the basis of their merit they rise.”

On the factors to ensure female participation in a workplace she said, “It’s the desire, support, and ecosystem of the organization where women work that will help them break the glass ceiling. Recognition of work keeps us going.”