Ivanka Trump faced a tough audience at the W20 women's summit in Berlin, after she defended her father's attitude towards women while speaking on a panel.

The first daughter was taking part in a discussion about female entrepreneurship and empowerment with German chancellor Angela Merkel, Queen Maxima of the Netherlands and International Monetary Fund director Christine Lagarde.

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Trump fell foul of the audience when she told the room President Donald Trump was a "tremendous champion of supporting families and enabling them to thrive".

W20 is a summit of G20 countries which aims to promote women's workforce participation and equality.

Trump said she was able to speak "on a very personal level" about the president as his daughter and spoke positively of her father's attitude towards women, saying he had "encouraged me and enabled me to thrive."

Trump also said her goal through her role in her father's administration is to bring "incremental positive change" – although it is not clear what her role in the White House is.

Her trip to Germany is her first international visit since Trump's inauguration, and follows her recent opinion piece in The Financial Times, co-authored by World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, in which she argues in favour of a reduction of the gender pay gap – a topic she addressed at the W20.

Trump's appearance at the women's summit has been criticised as controversial in light of her father's chequered past when it comes to women's rights. The president has a record of making sexist, derogatory remarks about women, which range from bragging about sexual assault to punishing women for seeking abortions.

After a tape emerged in October 2016 of Donald Trump bragging about grabbing women "by the p***y" – which the then president-elect swiftly dismissed as "locker-room" talk.

Ahead of the W20 summit, the President said he was "proud" that Ivanka was speaking at the conference and said she deserved credit for "her leadership on these important issues."