Donald and Ivanka Trump
To date, Trump’s biggest influence on his ideas regarding women entrepreneurs has arguably been his entrepreneur daughter Ivanka Trump.
Trump may also base his notions of women’s entrepreneurship on his own experiences as an entrepreneur.
In this regard, both Trump and his daughter’s entrepreneurial success was strongly influenced by their father’s privileged position.
For Ivanka Trump, her rise to entrepreneurial success was strongly facilitated by Donald Trump’s success as both a real estate mogul and as a television celebrity in ‘The Apprentice’.
There is no question that both Donald and Ivanka are savvy and talented entrepreneurs. But both also benefitted from their ‘status’ in starting and growing their businesses
Donald and his daughter Ivanka fit the characteristics of ‘Privileged Entrepreneurs’ – based on the ‘Melting Middle’ typology of the six main types of entrepreneurs. Privileged individuals experience less entrepreneurial impediments due to their elite or celebrity status. For example, privileged entrepreneurs have access to networks and resources due to their social status and family connections. Entrepreneurs in this category are not less capable than other entrepreneurs rather in addition to their personal skill and talent, they enjoy privileges which allow them to ‘function’ above the normal limitations of the existing institutional environment. In this way, they often do not encounter the same regulatory barriers and have access to key resources such as financing, contacts, connections and insider information not readily available to the unprivileged.
Examples of privileged entrepreneurs are often found among the siblings, in-laws and children of the ruling elite. Both Isobel de Santos and Valentin de Luz Guebuzza are examples of women entrepreneurs that enjoy this type of privileged status. Isobel is the daughter of Angola’s President and Valentin is the daughter of Mozambique’s President. For both Isobel and Valentin, their elite status greatly reduced or even eliminated gendered impediments to business startup and growth.
In Ivanka’s case, before joining the family business, Trump worked for Forest City Enterprises. Later she developed her own brand and introduced a line of jewelry (the Ivanka Trump collection) which was launched at her first flagship retail store called Ivanka Trump on Madison Avenue. Ivanka is principal of Ivanka Trump Fine Jewelry and she is also Executive Vice President of Development & Acquisitions at The Trump Organization. She has further released her own line of Ivanka Trump Lifestyle Collection which includes fragrance, footwear, handbags, outerwear and eyewear collections. Prior to her father’s presidential campaign, Ivanka’s estimated net worth was $150 million.
So what does this mean for the future of women entrepreneurship in the US? If Ivanka Trump becomes the ideal for women’s entrepreneurship then like in many developing and emerging economies across the world, we will see privileged women continue to translate their status and business acumen into successful businesses. However, our entrepreneurial ecosystem as a whole will suffer greatly, as unprivileged women entrepreneurs continue to face gendered barriers to access to capital, networks and visibility needed to start but grow their businesses.
Ruta Aidis, PhD 