Smart Women Across America Are Asking: 'Where Is Ivanka When We Need Her?'

"The flaws in Ivanka Trump's feminism are, by now, well known, writes Sady Doyle for Elle.

The flaws in Ivanka Trump's feminism are, by now, well known. Any liberal woman under 35 could probably rattle off the list in her sleep: Her "parental leave" plan didn't provide enough parental leave. Her child care plan didn't actually cover the cost of child care. Her #WomenWhoWork campaign is an ad for dresses and handbags; her dresses and handbags are made at facilities that exploit female workers; her "feminist advocate" stance belies her role in an administration that actively seeks to strip funding and rights from women, and her choice to take a role in that administration (besides being a land mine for nepotism charges, the president is, y'know, her Dad) has enabled her to profit off the presidency.

The insults to Ivanka Trump are piling up in trailerloads. Sady Doyle's is one of countless, incredulous, scathing reviews of the pink frosted cupcakes baked from the wisdom of other people that America's First Daughter calls a book for working women. There is near-unanimous agreement that Ivanka Trump has a unique idea about the very word 'working'.  It's not the one that over 100 million of the rest of us relate to. 

One wonders if Ivanka isn't actually doing more damage than good with this book, even if the proceeds are going to charity. Personally, I thought Ivanka was smarter than the Stepford wife she projects in 'Women Who Work'.  Her prolific use of people's quotations, taking them out of context and giving them revised life through an Ivanka-envisioned hastag, implies a certain sympatico with her -- one that more often than not, doesn't exist at all. Ivanka Trump is smelling the roses in Hillary country, leaving many people not amused. 

When Ivanka takes Toni Morrison's 'Beloved' and its reflections on both freedom from physical slavery and a psychological prison living in the mind of its main character Sethe and applies it to the lives of well-off, working white women, our aggravation is beyond exasperation. She sounds like a heartless, clueless airhead -- or more like her father than we want to believe. 

As Gail Collins wrote in her New York Times column this weekend: 'Where's Ivanka When We Need Her?' This is our real world:

The reproductive rights war is always promoted publicly as a battle against abortion. But many religious conservatives hate birth control in general. Some just want to stop sex outside of marriage. Some don’t believe even married couples should use artificial methods like pills or condoms. Some believe that all fertilized eggs are humans and that many forms of contraception, from IUDs to morning-after pills, cause the equivalent of murder. It’s a theological principle that most Americans don’t accept. “Personhood” amendments giving the eggs constitutional rights have been defeated even in very conservative states.

Frankly, we don't care that Ivanka Trump didn't get her massages during the presidential campaign. The sky is falling on women's rights in this country, and this blond bombshell is redefining slavery for rich, white women with nannies. This is gross, frankly. Truly gross.

Reshma Saujani, founder and CEO of the nonprofit Girls Who Code tweeted at Ivanka Trump gelling her not to feature her story in 'Women Who Work' unless she is "going to stop being #complicit."

For a much more In-Depth look at Ivanka's new book, read AOC's: Hard Work Is All That Is Required, Says Ivanka Trump In A Book Drowning In Bad Reviews. 

Absent A Terrorist Attack, Marine Le Pen Is Poised To Lose French Presidency

Writing for The Daily Beast, Christopher Dickey says definitively that "barring an act of God or ISIS, or a massive vote for the mysterious Monsiur Blanc", it is near certain that France will dodge a right-wing bullet, electing 39-year-old centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron and not far-right, nationalist-socialistic candidate Marine Le Pen as France's next president. 

The two candidates faced off in their one and only debate on Wednesday night, in which instant polls declared Macron the winner 60%-40%. If Macron is elected on Sunday, his victory represents a huge roadblock in what threatened to be a wave of nativism and populism sweeping Europe after Britain's Brexit vote.  

In America, Trump's Steve Bannon will not be happy if his candidate Le Pen loses. Her loss would also represent a huge setback for Russian President Vladimir Putin and promises one less headache for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is looking steady -- if not totally secure -- on her own road to re-election in September. 

Both candidates are taking a hard line on terrorism, although a large-scale attack in the next three days could deliver a win to Marine Le Pen. Dickey describes the debate and Le Pen's catty references to Macron's significantly-older wife and his former teacher:

On questions of economic nationalism, Le Pen repeatedly fell short as Macron, a policy wonk, demanded specifics that she was hard pressed to deliver. Her key pitch to withdraw from the common currency, for instance, became a muddle of francs and ecus and euros that might have evoked nostalgia in some, but provoked a sense of incompetence and chaos among others.

When Le Pen felt herself stumbling, she tried to goad Macron, laughing at him, shaking her head, and tossing out thinly veiled insults and allusions to his private life. At one point she accused him of “playing student and professor,” a smug reference to the fact he married his high-school drama teacher, who is 24 years older than he is. (Yes, there are some amorous anomalies floating around Macron, but this is France: His wife is very attractive, he jokes about his rumored homosexual liaisons—which the Russian press wrote about at length but without substantiation—and few people care.)

Indeed, Le Pen’s Trumpian penchant for nastiness, which plays well with her traditional base, served her very poorly in the debate.

Trumps Launch Full Assault On International Programs That Benefit Women & Girls

The Trump family double teamed their lies about women's rights with the proposed elimination of Hillary Clinton's Global Women's Issues Office, a State Department office that fights for the rights of women all over the world, with a special focus on defending those who are in the most precarious and vulnerable situations in impoverished countries.

This office is far more than a do-gooder initiative, which is clearly how one of both Trumps see its mission.  How ironic that this news broke hours after Ivanka Trump tried to persuade a skeptical audience in Berlin that her father is a "tremendous champion of supporting families and enabling them to thrive." In fact, most terrorism experts and the highest ranks of the US military know that women's empowerment programs are vital for America's national security.  Women Are the Best Weapon in the War Against Terrorism wrote Foreign Policy in this 2015 article. When we heard Trump declare that he has no interest in soft power, we knew the Global Women's Issues Office was on the chopping block. Just as the cuts to preventive medical care and birth control for women will enhance greater risks of terrorism, the inability of the Trump team to educate themselves on the opinions of their own generals on this matter is reckless and puts America at increased risks for decades. 

In her recent Georgetown speech, Hillary Clinton reminded us that women's rights are the first targets of fundamentalists. AOC reminds us that Hillary is correct and that -- no matter what Ivanka Trump has to say -- Washington DC is also in the hands of the most conservative administration in decades. Cutting back women's rights is their prime objective as well.

Note that many Senators -- including Republican senators -- do not abide by these deep cuts in the State Department. So we can't say for certain if the office will actually be abolished in the end, since it is their decision about how to fund the government, not Trump's. Still, the so-called support for women by the Trump administration is a joke. 

The Global Women's Issues Office did survive the short-term funding bill passed over the weekend to keep the government running. It's the 2018 budget negotiations that will be critical. 

In a related matter, CNN sent thinking women's tempers flaring yesterday with news that the Trump administration intends to discontinue 'Let Girls Learn', Michelle Obama's signature girls education initiative. CNN reported on an internal memo of Trump's intention to end the program which includes leadership camps, mentorship programs, school libraries and other resources intended to help 62 million adolescent girls attend and stay in school. The White House says the program has not changed, but did not say whether it would be maintained in the future or why the memo was sent.

AOC has reported on Michelle Obama's work for 'Let Girls Learn' and also her 2016 trip with CNN and the documentary 'We Will Rise'. 

Read: In Trump's Plan to Gut Foreign Aid, Battle Lines Drawn Over Global Women's Issues Foreign Policy