https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...53018f9a0ec_story.html?utm_term=.3036eb751c0a
many women who have worked closely with Trump say he was a corporate executive ahead of his time in providing career advancement for women. While some say he could be boorish, his companies nurtured and promoted women in an otherwise male-dominated industry. Several women said they appreciated how Trump granted them entry to a new playing field.
“From the standpoint of being a woman, I just thought he was phenomenal,” said Sunshine, 74. “So supportive and encouraging. . . . He gave me the ropes, and I could either hang myself or prove myself.”
Jennifer Crisafulli-Oberting, 43, a contestant on the Trump reality TV show “The Apprentice” who went on to promote the show in media appearances with Trump, said she felt she was being welcomed into the “boys’ club” — but on her terms.
“You were like one of the guys right off the bat, but you didn’t have to act or dress like one of the guys,” she said.
Trump often told the women he employed and worked with that he valued those he believed would stand their ground on construction sites and in legal battles. He called Barbara Res, whom he put in charge of the construction of his now-iconic Trump Tower in 1980, “a killer,” she recalled. And he used to tell her and others that “men are better than women, but a good woman is better than 10 good men.”
“He wasn’t discriminatory against women that I saw,” said Res, now in her 60s and owner of a construction consultancy.
Res said Trump was “brave” to hire her when few women were in the business. But like many men of the era, she said, “he was sexist; he made comments and stuff like that.”
In an interview, Trump blamed perceptions of him as sexist on unfair media coverage of his presidential campaign.
“I have been very, very good for women,” he said. “I was way ahead of the curve.”
Trump highlighted the role of women in his corporate success in his 1987 book “The Art of the Deal,” writing that he hired “a lot of women for top jobs, and they’re among my best people.”
Referring in the interview to his recruitment and promotion of women, he added: “It was a good decision. Good for women and good for me.”
Today, according to Trump’s attorney, Michael Cohen, there are more women than men holding executive positions in the Trump Organization, heading such departments as human resources, golf and hotel management, and global licensing, even though women make up just 43 percent of the overall workforce. Women who are in similar positions as men, Cohen said, “are compensated at equal and in many cases higher pay rates.”
