This year's W20 - an influential International Women Summit- had a very special guest: Ivanka Trump, the daughter of the US President.

Sitting next to Angela Merkel, chancellor of Germany, and Christine Lagarde, chief of the IMF, Ivanka Trump participated in a panel concerning how working women can better balance family and work.

Ivanka, who has been accused of mixing her business interests with her job at the White House as advisor to his father, was asked a simple question: "Who do you represent, Ivanka? Your father, the American people or your business?”

“Well certainly not the latter,” Ivanka Trump answered quickly. Then she said that she was “certainly quite unfamiliar” with her new role. “I am listening and I am learning and I am defining ways in which I think I will be able to have an impact,” Trump added.

Then Ivanka Trump was asked about her father and current boss, President Donald Trump. "He is a tremendous champion of supporting families and enabling them to thrive," Trump said.

As she was speaking, some members of the crowd attending the panel audibly hissed, groaned and booed.

"I've certainly heard criticism from the media and, uh, that's been perpetuated," she added, prompting further murmurs from the audience, as reported in EFE. "But I know from personal experience and I think the thousands of women who have worked with and for my father for decades when he was in the private sector are a testament to his belief and solid conviction in the potential of women and their ability to do their job as well as any man," Trump said. 

The US President has been widely criticized by women's rights activists for having made lewd comments that surfaced during the presidential campaign, such as a 2005 video in which he seemingly bragged about sexually assaulting women.

"I'm automatically attracted to beautiful women - I just start kissing them, it's like a magnet," Trump said in the video.

For the past weeks, Ivanka Trump has been accused of benefiting from her position to expand her business. Trump's prior job experience before her White House appointment included modeling and managing her personal jewelry brand and line of handbags, shoes and other fashion accessories. At the end of March, Ivanka was appointed  "Assistant to the President" (an unpaid position) and given a personal office in the White House and a small staff, as well as top security clearance.

 Before the panel started, President Trump wrote on his Twitter account that he was proud of his daughter "for her leadership on these important issues. Looking forward to hearing her speak at the W20!"