What Ivanka Wore at the Global Women’s Forum in Dubai

Senior Advisor to the President Ivanka Trump delivered the keynote address at the two-day Global Women’s Forum held in Dubai on Sunday.

Shining during her keynote speech, Ivanka donned a mustard satin dress by Jonathan Simkhai. The tie-front satin maxi dress features a mock neckline with a keyhole cut-out front, long sleeve detailed with bell cuffs, shirred shoulder panels, and a self-ties at waist. It retails for $645 and is available for purchase at BergdorfGoodman.com.

To complete her look, Ivanka sported a pair of nude pumps from Gianvito Rossi. The Plexi pumps are designed with clear PVC panels and a sleek pointed toe to create the illusion of longer legs. It retails for $795 and is available for purchase at Net-A-Porter.com.

If you are looking for a versatile dress that you can wear in the office or an event, check out below similar options without the costly price tag.

In her keynote speech at the women’s forum in Dubai on Sunday, Ivanka touted the progress of women in the United States.

“Today, American women are leading in every aspect of society. Last year, there were more women than men in the United States workforce, with women securing over 70 percent of new jobs,” Ivanka said in her address. “Women in America represent 40 per cent of the primary breadwinners. All of you here can also pioneer historical challenges in this region within your lifetimes.”

She congratulated Saudi Arabia for recent changes in the law that allow women to travel abroad as well as obtaining a passport without the permission of a male relative. Ivanka also pointed to the changes in other MidEast countries regarding woman’s rights.

“Bahrain has introduced legislation to prevent discrimination in the workplace; Jordan eliminated legal restrictions on women’s ability to work at night; Morocco expanded women’s land rights; and Tunisia introduced critical laws to combat domestic violence.”

“We all need to applaud these achievements and advancements. And yet, we won’t grow complacent because there is still so much more work to be done.”

Ivanka noted the high percentage of women from the Emirati graduating college, but only 10 percent of the UAE’s total national income is derived from women.

“Last year, more than 70 per cent of Emirati university graduates were women. Yet only 10 per cent of the UAE’s total national income is driven by women – we hope to see that number grow much higher,” she said in her speech on Sunday.

She pointed out how women’s economic equality in the UAE region has the potential to add 600 billion dollars to the global annual GDP by 2025.

“This number represents a far more than an economic boom. It represents of millions of lives full of promise.”

Ivanka also highlighted the 2019 launch of Women’s Global Development and Prosperity Initiative (WGDP). She described it as the “first-ever coordinated US government approach to global women’s economic empowerment”. WGDP has “impacted more than 12 million women” in the developing world in its first year alone, adding it’s “ambitious goal” is to reach at least 50 million women by 2025.

“But in our first year, we have already impacted more than 12 million women,” Ivanka said. “We are here together to ask nations in this region to continue to work with us to break new grounds, to institute changes legally and culturally and give every woman a chance to determine her own destiny and bring greater peace and prosperity to this region and to the world.”

During the first trip abroad of her father’s presidency to Saudi Arabia, the two Gulf countries pledged $100 million to the fund. The UAE and US, as founding members of the We-Fi (Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative), have in the past two years mobilized $2.6 billion of both public and private sector funding that invests in more than 100,000 women-owned businesses in the developing world

The audience for her speech in the UAE included Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dubai Crown Prince Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum, World Bank President David Malpass and International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva. Also attending were Mohammad Abdullah Al Gergawi, Minister of Cabinet Affairs and the Future, senior officials, dignitaries and 3,000 delegates from 87 countries.

.@HHShkMohd, during his meeting with @IvankaTrump, praises the Women’s Global Development & Prosperity (W-GDP) Initiative, the first whole-of-government effort to advance global women’s economic empowerment, which was launched by the White House in February 2019. pic.twitter.com/PsyV6ShTIH
— Dubai Media Office (@DXBMediaOffice) February 16, 2020

During her two-day visit to the UAE, Trump met with women entrepreneurs and discussed a U.S. government project she’s leading that’s aimed at helping women in developing countries. The Women’s Global Development and Prosperity Initiative was launched last year with backing by her father.

On Saturday, she toured Abu Dhabi’s grand mosque, visited Abu Dhabi’s branch of the Louvre Museum, and met privately with the country’s day-to-day ruler, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed.

The theme of the forum in Dubai was The Power of Influence.