Kim Hjelmgaard

USA TODAY

Ivanka Trump on Tuesday defended her father's attitudes toward women amid boos at a panel discussion and vowed to push for “incremental, positive change” for women in the U.S. economy in her first international trip as a White House adviser.

She traveled to Berlin for a forum for female leaders hosted by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, a move experts saw as an opportunity for Merkel — Europe's most powerful woman — to improve her relationship with President Trump.

“I’m listening, I’m learning, I’m defining the ways in which I think that I’ll be able to have impact” in helping women, Ivanka Trump, 35, said. The fashion entrepreneur's appearance at the Women 20 summit came at the direct invitation of Merkel, whom she met during the German leader's trip to Washington last month.

While Ivanka Trump praised her father for being a "tremendous champion of supporting families," members of the panel's audience booed and hissed.

The reaction prompted the panel's moderator, magazine editor Miriam Meckel, to note that “some attitudes toward women your father has publicly displayed in former times might leave one questioning whether he’s such an empowerer for women."

Ivanka Trump replied: “I’ve certainly heard the criticism from the media, and that’s been perpetuated.”

While in Berlin the president's daughter took part in discussions on gender equality and entrepreneurship. She visited the Holocaust memorial in the German capital, met staff at the U.S. Embassy and toured a technical school. She will attend a gala dinner with Merkel on Tuesday evening, although no one-on-one meeting is planned, according to the German government.

During his first three months in office, President Trump has revoked legislation that requires employers to be transparent about pay, made cuts to Planned Parenthood services and reinstated policy that prohibits abortion counseling by any non-government international organization that receives U.S. federal funding.

Ivanka Trump, meanwhile, has advocated for policies benefiting working women by holding regular White House forums and roundtables on the topic.

President Trump tweeted Tuesday that he was "Proud of @IvankaTrump for her leadership on these important issues."

Ivanka Trump said she was "humbled" to take part in the discussions with "so many formidable leaders."

International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde, Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland and the Netherlands’ Queen Maxima also attended the one-day forum in Berlin.

Ivanka Trump's visit comes before her father has made his first international trip as president and before the he has appointed a new ambassador to Germany, a key diplomatic post. Her visit is being scrutinized in Germany for any signs that Merkel could develop a relationship with Ivanka Trump for leverage with the president's administration.

The two leaders have differing ideas about trade, immigration and international cooperation. Their relationship started awkwardly when they met face-to-face in March, including a cringe-worthy moment in the Oval Office when Trump appeared to ignore Merkel's request to shake his hand. During a subsequent news conference, Trump made a quip about wiretapping, a reference to a German government claim that President Obama's administration may have wiretapped Merkel's cellphone.

"Obviously the German government wants to develop a direct line to people with influence in the White House — preferably to people with some sense of economic realities and a more globalist attitude," said Michael Wohlgemuth, a Berlin-based political affairs expert at Open Europe, a think tank.

"Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, may be the best options available (to Germany) to open up a back channel to the U.S. president."

President Trump is due to meet Merkel in Europe in May, at a NATO summit in Brussels and then a few days later for the Group of Seven meetings in Italy. The two leaders will see each other again in July for a Group of 20 conference in Hamburg.