In Deficit, Emma Holten traces (via witch trials, midwives and the treatment of Britney Spears) how economists – from the Enlightenment onwards – created a value framework that looked down on women and care work. Unable to assign value to acts of care, these acts have, by default, been assigned a value of zero. And this has horrible consequences for all of us, trapped in a world where our perceived value is linked – at political and societal levels – to our economic productivity, above all else.
