Marissa Velez Kraxberger, former creative director for Ivanka Trump and one of the creators of the #WomenWhoWork campaign, has had enough of her former boss’s invocation of parental workplace rights and is opening up about her own experiences with the company.
Kraxberger originally interviewed for the job when she was two months pregnant. “When I asked about maternity leave, she said she would have to think about it, that at Trump, they don’t offer maternity leave and that she went back to work just a week after having her first child,” Kraxberger wrote in a Facebook post on Monday.
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Kraxberger’s statement is getting attention for calling out poor policy at Trump’s company, but moreover, she’s sick of the way the Trump family is co-opting the cause. “The #WomenWhoWork platform we created was meant to inspire and encourage women to work at all aspects of their lives and live the lives they wanted to live, but before our eyes [Ivanka] took the platform and made it all about herself,” Kraxberger says.
For those of us to whom good parental policies matter in this upcoming election (and that should be all of us, FYI), Kraxberger wants you to remember who #WomenWhoWork was originally intended for: “It is not about Ivanka — it is about all the women we know working hard every day to live the life they want.”
More:Ivanka Trump: Every mom’s a working mom
Updated Oct. 14, 2016 at 7 a.m.: SheKnows received the following response from a brand spokesperson at Ivanka Trump:
The team at Ivanka Trump is saddened by this mischaracterization of how our company developed its industry leading culture and benefits package. In addition to paid leave, we also offer all employees flexible work schedules and unlimited vacation and sick days.
As a company for women, run by women, we spent a considerable amount of time in the early days of building our business developing a unique corporate culture and engaged in meaningful dialogue about the benefits that would be most impactful to the people working at Ivanka Trump.
While we respect differing political views from employees, past and present, we are steadfast in our belief that we have built a culture and a brand to be proud of and are deeply committed to supporting and empowering women.
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