Deficit: The Hidden Value of Care

An International Bestseller and winner of the Politiken Literature Prize 2024.

How can we create a better future, one that truly prioritises health and happiness?

For too long, economic thinkers have left out acts of care, written off as "women's work" for centuries, from their calculations. The result? Terrible real-world consequences today: crumbling public services, struggling schools and care systems on the brink of collapse.

In Deficit, prominent Danish feminist Emma Holten reveals how and why this happened, and argues that the things that matter,s uch as doing homework with your child, checking in on loved ones, talking to a colleague who doesn’t seem well, might seem inconsequential, but are in fact the building blocks of the economy. Urgent and incisive, this is a call to rethink the economic value of care.

Note: This title is also available on our website in Italian as Deficit. Perché l'economia femminista cambierà il mondo.

Author: Emma Holten

She is a feminist activist and gender policy consultant. In 2014 she created the project CONSENT, raising awareness of digital sexual violence. Since 2019, she has worked with feminist economics. She served on the European Institute of Gender Equality Experts Forum as an expert in feminist economics, and on Human Rights Watch’s advisory committee on Women’s Rights. In 2023, she was appointed as advisor to the Danish government’s investigation of power in Denmark. She has delivered keynotes at the Conference on the Status of Women at the UN, the Guadalajara Book Fair, the European Commission and many other places. She also has a degree in Modern Culture and has translated Chris Kraus and Silvia Federici. She lives in Copenhagen. Deficit is her first book.