Ivanka Trump, making her overseas début as the U.S. “First Daughter” at a women’s summit in Berlin on Tuesday, was forced to defend her father’s attitude towards women.

Sitting on a G20 panel with women leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Ms. Ivanka Trump drew chuckles from the audience when she praised “my father’s advocacy” on the issue and his role as “a tremendous champion of supporting families and enabling them to thrive”.

The panel moderator, a finance journalist, interjected, saying: “Some attitudes toward women your father has publicly displayed... might leave one questioning whether he is such an empowerer for women.”

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

“I think the thousands of women who have worked with and for my father for decades, when he was in the private sector, are testament to his belief and solid conviction in the potential of women and their ability to do the job as well as any man.”

Ms. Ivanka, a glamorous former model who started her own fashion line, has worked for her billionaire-father’s company and now has an office in the White House. She said her father “encouraged me and enabled me to thrive”.

Ms. Merkel is seen to be cultivating a good relationship with Ms. Ivanka as a key communication channel with the Trump presidency.

Ms. Ivanka has been accused in the United States of benefiting from nepotism, and was ridiculed on the “Saturday Night Live” comedy show for being “complicit” in promoting Mr. Trump’s divisive policies.

On the panel on Tuesday Ms. Ivanka immediately faced a tough opening question from the moderator, Miriam Meckel, editor-in-chief of business weekly WirtschaftsWoche.

Asked whether she was in Berlin to represent her father, the American people, or her business, Ms. Ivanka replied: “Certainly not the latter... I am rather unfamiliar with this role as well, it is quite new to me.”

A demonstration against Ms. Ivanka’s visit was scheduled outside a gala dinner Tuesday.

Kathleen Brown, of the protest group Coalition Berlin, charged that Ms. Ivanka’s clothing line is produced in “sweatshops” with mainly women garment workers in China, Vietnam and Bangladesh. “How can Ivanka Trump talk of women’s ‘empowerment’ at the same time President Trump has blocked funding for international reproductive care? Ivanka’s silence on life-and-death matters for women is deafening,” she said.