Ivanka Trump Sparks Backlash as Keynote Speaker at CES 2020

Ivanka Trump has sparked backlash after it was announced that she is scheduled to take part in a keynote talk at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, a three-day long conferences that is expected to draw around 200,000 attendees. Trump is expected take part in a keynote talk with Gary Shapiro, president of the Consumer Technology Association, which organizes CES, which will begin at 2 p.m. local time on Tuesday.

Trump currently serves as advisor to her father, President Donald Trump. After her attendance at the show was announced, many critics argued that the 38-year-old is unqualified to speak at CES.

Tech analyst Carolina Milanesi wrote in a column for Forbes that she was "far from pleased" when she heard that Trump would be a keynote speaker. "The reason is certainly not found in my political beliefs or my opinion of Ivanka Trump as a businesswoman," she wrote. "The reason for my upset is rooted in the fact that there are many more women who are in tech and are entrepreneurs who could run circles around Trump on how technology will impact the future of work."

CES had been criticized in recent years for failing to include any female keynote speakers, but many women feel that Trump is not an accurate representation of women in the industry.

"Beyond the politics of the Trump administration - Ivanka is not a woman in tech. She's not a CEO. She has no background," tweeted computer programmer Brianna Wu, who is running for United States Congress as a Democrat. "It's a lazy attempt to emulate diversity - but like all emulation it's not quite the real thing."

"This is an insult to women in technology," investor Elisabeth Fullerton wrote in the Women Who Tech group on Facebook. "We did hard times in university, engineering, math, and applied sciences. This is what extreme privilege and entitlement get you. It's not what you know it's who you know I guess."

Trump, who was announced as a keynote speaker shortly before Christmas, and Shapiro will speak about "the path to the future of work." A release adds that the two will "discuss employer-led strategies to reskill workers, create apprenticeships and develop K-12 STEM education programs."

"There's a lot of focus on jobs of the future, and certainly the keynote that I'll be doing with Ivanka Trump will be focusing on... how industry is working with government on this very important issue," Shapiro told the BBC. CES' release states that Trump "focuses on the economic empowerment of women and their families, skills-training and workforce development" in her role as advisor to the president.

"CES has consistently proven to be one of the most influential technology events in the world and I am excited to join this year for a substantive discussion on the how the government is working with private sector leaders to ensure American students and workers are equipped to thrive in the modern, digital economy," Trump added in a statement when the news was announced.

Photo Credit: Getty / Riccardo Savi