What happens when we finally name the system?

In this powerful conversation, I’m joined by award-winning journalist, activist, and author Soraya Chemaly, whose latest book All We Want Is Everything: How We Dismantle Male Supremacy, is one of the most important books on gender and power published in recent years.

Soraya has spent decades researching and writing about gender, culture, and power — and in this conversation, we explore the structural forces shaping women’s lives, from the subtle ways society centers men to the political backlash against women’s independence happening right now.

We talk about why the language of “gender equality” often fails to capture the reality of the system we live in — and why naming male supremacy matters.

This episode is a deep dive into the cultural, political, and psychological forces shaping women’s lives today — and what it means to step outside those systems and choose ourselves.

In This Episode We Discuss

• Why Soraya chose to name the system male supremacy
• What it means to decenter men
• Why women are socialized to prioritize pleasing over knowing
• The hidden ways institutions are structured around men
• Why the backlash against women’s freedom is happening now
• The cultural forces shaping women’s confidence and ambition
• Why male flight from “feminized spaces” is reshaping politics
• The myth of meritocracy in elite education
• Why progress has happened — and why backlash follows it
• How everyday choices contribute to cultural change
• Why Gen Z women give Soraya hope for the future

A Powerful Moment

One of the most striking ideas Soraya shares is that feminism is fundamentally about decentering men — not out of hatred, but to enable women to live lives rooted in dignity, agency, and autonomy.

As Soraya explains:

About Soraya Chemaly

Soraya Chemaly is an award-winning journalist, activist, and author whose work focuses on gender, politics, and power.

She is the author of All We Want Is Everything: How We Dismantle Male Supremacy and Rage Becomes Her, and writes widely about the cultural forces shaping women’s lives.

Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, Time, The Atlantic, and The Washington Post, and she writes the Substack newsletter Unmanned, exploring gender, power, and resistance in everyday life.

Buy All We Want Is Everything and discover more from Soraya: https://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Soraya-Chemaly/100698080

Connect With Soraya

Substack: Unmanned: https://substack.com/@sorayachemaly
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sorayachemaly/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ragebecomesher/

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