Closing the gap: “Organisations ranging from the United Nations to the OECD and the World Bank are paying more attention to women. Some European countries have already introduced quotas to get more of them on company boards and others may follow. Every self-respecting firm, bank, consultancy and headhunter is launching initiatives, conducting studies and running conferences on how to make the most of female potential. Are these efforts still needed? In many emerging markets women remain second-class citizens, lacking basic rights and suffering violence and many kinds of disadvantage. In the rich world most of the battles about legal and political rights have been won, and on the economic front too women have come a long way. It is easy to forget that even in developed countries they arrived in strength in the labour force only a few decades ago.”