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First daughter Ivanka Trump has billed herself as an advocate in the White House for women’s rights. But the first daughter, who owns her namesake brand but no longer closely manages it, did not speak out when three men with New York nonprofit China Labor Watch were arrested while investigating low wages, forced overtime, and physical and verbal abuse at Chinese factories producing shoes for her company.
Related: Ivanka Trump should “know better”: Watchdog demands investigation on first daughter wearing her company’s clothes
The men were accused of using secret recording devices illegally and jailed, leaving the wife of one of them, Deng Guilian, with no choice but to work an overnight shift at a karaoke parlor that gave her only three days off a month to see her two young children, the Associated Press reported on Thursday.
“They seem accustomed to not having their mom,” Deng said of her 7-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son.
Trump’s company did not respond to a request for comment from Newsweek.
“As a public figure, she has the ability and resources to not only work on labor conditions at her own brand’s factories, but also to help improve labor conditions of the global supply chain as a whole,” China Labor Watch founder Li Qiang said of Trump. “However, she did not use her influence to do these things.”
Trump’s silence around the factory workers and the women and children affected contradicts her commitment to improving “the lives of countless women and girls,” as detailed in her best-selling book Women Who Work.
“When I think about the opportunities Arabella will have available to her in the United States,” Trump wrote, referring to her daughter, “compared with some of the six hundred million girls growing up in developing countries, I’m even more inspired to make a difference.”
Trump recently drew criticism for deleting “Entrepreneur & advocate for the education and empowerment of women & girls” from her Twitter profile and replacing it with “Advisor to POTUS on job creation + economic empowerment, workforce development & entrepreneurship.”
This article was first written by Newsweek
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