Since 2013 The Economist has marked International Women’s Day by publishing the “glass-ceiling index”. It ranks 29 countries according to ten indicators of working women’s lot. Not surprisingly, Nordic countries, led by Iceland (new to the index) come out top overall. Finland has the biggest gap between the proportion of women with degrees (49%) and that of men (just 35%). Norway’s gender wage-gap (6.3%, in men’s favour) is less than half the OECD average (15.5%). Quotas have helped gain Nordic women strong representation in boardrooms and parliaments. Bottom of the league are Japan, South Korea and Turkey, where men are likelier than women to have degrees or senior jobs, and to work at all. Pay gaps are also wide. Japan and South Korea have generous parental leave, chiefly as a response to their ageing populations and shrinking labour forces. In other respects, they trail far behind the Nordics.