Ivanka Trump’s talk at tech conference ignites backlash

by Justin Wise - 01/08/20 9:42 AM ET

White House adviser Ivanka Trump on Tuesday was met with a friendly reception from the crowd while delivering a keynote address at the CES tech gathering in Las Vegas, the nation’s biggest consumer electronics trade show.

But her appearance ignited intense backlash from women and other tech workers who argued that her background did not align with what the annual tech conference is meant to represent.

Hundreds of Twitter users tweeted the hashtag #BoycottCES to voice frustration with President Trump’s daughter’s appearance.

Brianna Wu, a video game developer who is running for Congress in Massachusetts, tweeted before the event that Ivanka Trump “is not a woman in tech” and that her invitation to CES was a “lazy attempt to emulate diversity.”

This is dead on.

Beyond the politics of the Trump administration – Ivanka is not a woman in tech. She’s not a CEO. She has no background.

It’s a lazy attempt to emulate diversity – but like all emulation it’s not quite the real thing. https://t.co/MQdGysNQ96

— Brianna Wu (@BriannaWu) January 5, 2020

“This is an insult to women in technology, we did hard times in University, engineering, math, and applied sciences,” technology investor Elisabeth Fullerton wrote on Facebook. “This is what extreme privilege and entitlement get you. It’s not what you know it’s who you know I guess.”

Consumer Technology Association (CTA), the show’s organizer, has faced scrutiny in the past over the event’s lack of diversity.

The show had zero female keynote speakers in 2016 and 2017, The Guardian noted, and has led CTA to invite more women to speak in subsequent years. The show also sparked outrage last year after revoking an innovation award for a female-led sex device company. CES later reversed the decision and apologized.

Trump spoke with CTA President Gary Shapiro for about 40 minutes during a discussion on the “path to the future of work.”

Among other things, she touted the administration’s efforts to work with tech companies to train Americans to learn new skills and develop apprenticeships. The conversation touched on areas that Trump, the president’s eldest daughter, has focused on in her role in the White House.

“It’s not only about training for the jobs of the future,” she said. “People need to be thinking about investing in their current workforce so they can enable those people to do their same job using different equipment tomorrow.”

She noted that a White House council she helps lead would start a nationwide advertising campaign encouraging people to look into different paths to employment, such as apprenticeships.

“We need to raise awareness about many options that exist,” she said. She also celebrated the low unemployment rate under her father’s administration, saying that every American can “secure employment” if they want to.

CTA defended Trump’s inclusion in the event, saying in a statement to The Washington Post that it annually “invites officials from every White House — both Republicans and Democrats — to participate in and speak at CES.” Shapiro also told the BBC that he didn’t regret conducting a keynote session with Trump, adding that she’s done “great work.”

“We appreciate Ivanka Trump coming to CES 2020 and speaking before a full-capacity audience on the critical issue of the future of jobs because of advancements in technology,” Shapiro said in a statement to The Hill. “Developing our future workforce has bipartisan support, and the discussion reflected the importance of and need for a strategic government-industry approach on the future American workforce.”

But Rachel Sklar, a co-founder of Change The Ratio, which increases visibility and opportunity for women in tech and new media, argued that her inclusion was an insult considering the efforts to increase diversity at the conference.

“What an insult to the YEARS AND YEARS of protesting how few women were invited to keynote & being told it was a pipeline problem while similarly-situated men were elevated,” Sklar said on Twitter. “There are so many great, qualified women. Shame.”

Trump is one of a few government officials appearing at the CES tech gathering this year. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao is scheduled to give a keynote speech on Wednesday about the current state of innovation and her department’s support for new technologies.

Trump has come under scrutiny before for her work inside the White House. After a video showed her conversing with world leaders at last year’s Group of 20 summit, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said on Twitter that “being someone’s daughter actually isn’t a career qualification.”

Tags Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Donald Trump Elaine Chao Ivanka Trump