WH Allen secures Emma Holten's Deficit about feminist economics

WH Allen has signed Deficit: How Feminist Economics Can Change Our World by Danish policy consultant Emma Holten.

Amanda Waters, editor at Ebury, acquired world English rights to the international bestseller from Laurence Laluyaux at RCW, to publish in time on 6th March for International Women’s Day (8th March).

“In 2020, Holten read an article stating that women were a net ‘deficit’ to society because they took more than they gave, ‘draining’ the public purse by giving birth, taking parental leave and working part-time or lower paid jobs,” the blurb reads. “Deficit is her blistering response. Taking aim at the economic establishment, Holten traces how economic thinkers – from the Enlightenment onwards – created a value framework that neglected so-called ‘women’s work’ and acts of care.

“She reveals the major flaws in the economic models that drive governmental policies today, superficially giving us unparalleled monetary wealth, but causing deep social harms that are hurting us all.”

An instant number one bestseller in Denmark, it has also been nominated for major literary prizes.

Holten is a feminist activist and gender policy consultant. 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 sits 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.

Holten said: “I am so thrilled that Deficit has found a home with Ebury and is making its way to English-language readers. The care crisis is something people are experiencing all over the world.

“Crumbling social relationships, exhaustion, loneliness, stress and no time to unwind and care for yourself has become the rule, not the exception. That this is the case in some of the richest countries in the world is a scandal. What has been the goal of politics for the last 30 years? We’re valuing the wrong things, and it might cost us everything we care about.”

Waters said: “Deficit is an electrifying read, brilliantly translated by Sherilyn Hellberg. I am delighted to be publishing it at WH Allen, and that it has received endorsements from radical economic and feminist thinkers like Kate Raworth, Sofie Hagen, Rosie Collington and Rachel Holmes.

“A conversation-starter that has sold in 11 territories so far, Deficit is a book that will transform how you see the world, forever.”