Welcome to Compliance Clarified's 100th episode! This week Rachel Wolcott, senior editor and Lindsey Rogerson, senior editor in London speak to a special guest Ann Francke Chief Executive of the Chartered Management Institute in London, a professional body for management and leadership. This International Women's Day podcast looks at the backlash that's hit efforts to get women into the workplace and on an equal footing. We focus on financial services, but this is an issue that reverberates throughout society. In financial services, there has been a backlash against environment, social and governance (ESG) initiatives and despite a lot of talk about diversity and inclusion, such efforts have stalled. Fear of ESG and D&I has been conflated into an anti-woke and in some places, anti-woman agenda and with some politicians and pundits describing measures to tackle climate change and inequality as a societal risk. Equality initiatives are also some of the first to get cut when things get tough. The Chartered Management Institute, for example, found that one in three male managers (31%) think that too much effort is going into ensuring workplace gender balance. So, how do companies, financial services firms and regulators who want to take D&I or ESG forward stand up to the political and societal backlash? More on Ann: She started her career at Procter & Gamble and has held senior executive positions at Mars, Boots, Yell and BSI. In 2020, Ann was awarded an OBE for services to workplace equality. Ann is an expert on gender balance in the workplace and speaks frequently in the media and conferences on this and other management topics. Her book (https://amzn.eu/d/bCRewdP) on gender balance - Create a Gender-balanced Workplace, published in September 2019. Links to previous International Women's Day podcasts: 2023 Season 7, Episode 7: International Women’s Day special: How to ensure diversity and inclusion initiatives deliver meaningful outcomes - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/season-7-episode-7-international-womens-day-special/id1548510826?i=1000603262524 2022 Season 4, Episode 6: Celebrating International Women's Day -https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/season-4-episode-6-celebrating-international-womens-day/id1548510826?i=1000553278776 Contact us [email protected] [email protected] More information about Thomson Reuters Regulatory Intelligence: https://legal.thomsonreuters.com/en/products/regulatory-intelligence Compliance Clarified is a podcast from Thomson Reuters Regulatory Intelligence. Listen to wide-ranging, insightful discussions on all things compliance for financial services firms. We delve into the hot topics of the day, the challenges faced and offer up practical ideas for emerging good practice. We de-mystify regulation and explore the art, as well as the science, of the ever-expanding role of the compliance officer.  Enforcements, digital transformation, regulatory change, governance, culture, conduct risk – anything and everything impacting the compliance function is up for discussion.