At the 2016 Republican National Convention, Ivanka Trump made waves when she said her father would revolutionize the country’s support for working mothers.
“Policies that allow women with children to thrive should not be novelties,” she declared. “They should be the norm.”
After writing the book Women Who Work and advocating for working mothers during the Trump campaign, the 34-year-old eldest Trump daughter has been pretty vocal on this issue, even fashioning her clothing line’s brand around this theme. But as the Washington Post reports, the company that designs her clothing line does not offer workers a single day of paid maternity leave.
Although Ivanka refused to comment on the Post’s story, a fashion designer for the G-III Apparel Group told the Post that she received 12 weeks of leave with no pay when she became pregnant in 2015.
“It’s hard enough emotionally to come back to work right after having a baby,” the unnamed designer, who is a registered Republican and worked for G-III for four years, told the Post. “But to know you’re returning to a company that doesn’t value your choice to be a mother makes it harder.”
Ivanka Trump says she understands the #WageGap & problems facing working moms. Too bad her dad doesn't have a clue. pic.twitter.com/N8LgW8Aq6F
— Center for Voter Information (@centervoterinfo) July 22, 2016
Five other past and current employees of G-III confirmed to the Post that the company offers 12 weeks of unpaid leave after one year of employment, which is the minimum allowed legally for companies with over 50 employees.
G-III won the rights in 2012 to design and manufacture Ivanka’s clothing line. According to the Post, she’s still highly involved in the day-to-day operations of her brand.
https://twitter.com/Joe_America1776/status/758173652298981376
“I think parental leave is enormously important — and it’s a personal decision,” Ivanka told Business Insider in March. “Part of building a company whose goal is to empower women in all aspects of life is that I’ve given my team some leeway to determine what parental leave looks like for each of them individually.”
From the Post:
Ivanka Trump clothing generated roughly $100 million in revenue last fiscal year, G-III reports show. The company — which also partners with Calvin Klein, Jessica Simpson and Tommy Hilfiger, among more than 15 other brands —recorded $2.3 billion in net sales this fiscal year. The Ivanka Trump contract is up for renewal in 2018.
When two businesses ink a brand licensing agreement, employee benefits aren’t normally part of the discussion. Trump, however, has dedicated her advocacy to what has since become her signature hashtag: #WomenWhoWork.
“It’s a celebration of women working at all aspects of their lives,” she says on her website. “Women who transition between their various roles in professional and personal capacities: building careers, raising children, nurturing relationships and pursuing passions.”
On Donald Trump’s campaign website, there is no reference to any sort of a paid family leave policy. When Fox News Business asked him to clarify his position on the matter during an interview in October, Trump said, “It’s something that’s being discussed, I think we have to keep our country very competitive, so you have to be careful of it.”
Last month, British newspaper The Independent revealed most of the Ivanka Trump brand’s clothing was manufactured in Vietnam and China. Donald Trump, whose apparel also is largely made overseas, has made decrying outsourced jobs central to his campaign.
“Who she chooses as a manufacturing partner is telling,” Karen Leland, president of the Sterling Marketing Group in San Francisco and author of “The Brand Mapping Strategy” told the Washington Post.
“Her business practices aren’t consistent with her advocacy.”
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