Kellyanne Conway hails Trump's empowerment of women despite widespread accusations of misogyny

President frequently insults women as ‘nasty’

Kellyanne Conway has claimed Donald Trump thinks "women are equal" despite widespread accusations of misogyny and having rolled back women's rights.

The presidential counsellor who has been one of Mr Trump’s most trusted advisers and spokespersons, having joined his campaign in the summer of 2016, said he had “elevated women women to senior positions in business and in government”.

Reflecting on the fact that women in the US – or rather white women in the US – earned the right to vote 100 years ago, she praised the “courageous warriors” who pressed for change.

“This has been a century worth celebrating, but also a reminder that our democracy is young and fragile. A woman in a leadership role still can seem novel,” she said.

She then praised the president for promoting women, and added: “He confides in and consults us, respects our opinions, and insists that we are on equal footing with the men.”

Kellyanne Conway speaks at the Republican National Convention (Getty Images)

She added: “President Trump helped me shatter a barrier in the world of politics by empowering me to manage his campaign to its successful conclusion.”

Her comments came just days after she announced she would be leaving the White House at the end of the month, in order to spend more time with her family.

Her husband, a lawyer and outspoken critic of the president, is also stepping back from his role with the anti-Trump organisation, the Lincoln Project. They want to spend more time with one of their children.

Ms Conway’s comments will likely be scorned by women’s activists, who say the president has not only repeatedly acted as a misogynist – for instance terming women he does not like as “nasty” and horrible – but also undermined their rights in real terms.

Along with many other Republican leaders he has opposed helping overseas groups that provide access to women – something known as the “global gag rule”.

Yet he has also supported efforts in the US at a state level to limit access to abortion providers, and gone as far as to suggest he would overturn Roe v Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling that has allowed women the “right to choose”.

He has also supported measures opposed to ensuring equal pay in the work place, failed to appoint women to senior positions in his cabinet, and held up federal funding for abortion providers in the US, under the Title X family planning programme.

A recent article in Foreign Policy was headlined “Trump’s War on the Concept of Women’s Health”.

Ms Conway insisted that “for many of us women’s empowerment is not a slogan”.

“It comes not from strangers on social media or sanitised language in a corporate handbook. It comes from the everyday heroes who nurture us, who shape us, and who believe in us,” she said.

“The promise of America belongs to us all. This is a land of inventors and innovators, of entrepreneurs and educators, or pioneers and parents, all contributing to the success and the future of a great nation and her people.”

She added: “These everyday heroes have a champion in president Trump.”