Our annual measure of the role and influence of women in the workforce: “The Economist’s glass-ceiling index measures the role and influence of women in the workforce across the OECD club of mostly rich countries. Four Nordic countries—Sweden, Iceland, Finland and Norway—top the index as the best places for working women. Japan and South Korea, where women must still choose between a family or a career, fill the bottom two places. A country’s performance on the index is measured along ten metrics, including the gender pay gap, parental leave, the cost of childcare, educational attainment and representation in senior management and political jobs. We give more weight to the indicators which affect all women (such as labour-force participation) and less to those which affect only some (such as maternity pay). Paternity pay is also included. Studies show that where fathers take parental leave, mothers tend to return to the labour market, female employment is higher and the earnings gap between men and women is lower.

• The U.S. is 20th.