Overview of Financial Feminist Episode 292 with Anna Malaika Tubbs
In this episode, Tori Dunlap speaks with sociologist and bestselling author Anna Malaika Tubbs about her book Erased: What American Patriarchy Has Hidden from Us and her concept of American patriarchy—a system built into U.S. institutions since 1776 that interlocks sexism, racism, and capitalism. The conversation reframes American history as a long-running struggle over who gets to count as fully human, who gets access to power, and how social change actually happens.
What “American Patriarchy” Means
Anna argues that patriarchy in the U.S. is not just “men over women,” but a designed social order created by people in power and maintained through law, culture, and economics.
Core idea
- The U.S. founders chose to define full citizenship around white, land-owning men.
- Everyone else—women, Black people, Indigenous people, poor people—was excluded or only partially included.
- This wasn’t accidental; it was a deliberate blueprint embedded in the Constitution and early institutions.
Why the term matters
- Anna emphasizes that patriarchy looks different across countries, but in the U.S. it is uniquely tied to:
- racism
- capitalism
- gender binaries
- legal exclusion
- She argues that many modern inequalities are downstream of this original structure.
How American Patriarchy Shows Up Early
One of the episode’s most striking points is how early kids begin absorbing gendered limits.
Girls and brilliance
- Anna cites research showing that by age 6, girls begin to stop describing themselves as “brilliant.”
- This is part of how children are trained early to accept who is “supposed” to lead, speak up, or be visible.
Socialization starts at home
- The family is described as the first society.
- Kids absorb messages like:
- “boys don’t cry”
- “girls should focus on appearance”
- These messages reproduce the status quo long before formal education begins.
Why it starts so young in the U.S.
- Anna connects this to the American obsession with:
- beauty
- celebrity
- binary identity categories
- survival through conformity
- She argues capitalism helps accelerate this conditioning.
The Founding Fathers, the Constitution, and Exclusion
A major focus of the conversation is how the Constitution created and protected hierarchy.
What the founders were protecting
- The founders feared revolutionary ideas spreading to:
- women
- enslaved people
- poor people
- Indigenous people
- immigrants
- They used the Constitution to define who would have rights and who would not.
Who was left out
- Women were excluded from political power and treated primarily as vessels to reproduce male power.
- Black people were excluded and slavery was protected.
- Indigenous people were excluded entirely from the national definition of citizenship.
- Poor people’s right to vote was tied to land ownership.
Important correction to common narratives
- Anna argues the founders were aware there were other ways to organize society.
- They still intentionally chose a patriarchal, exclusionary model.
- She notes even the language of “originalists” used by some Supreme Court justices reflects this desire to preserve the original social order.
Change, History, and Why Progress Feels Slow
Tori and Anna discuss the frustration many people feel about change moving slowly, especially in moments of backlash.
Anna’s historical perspective
- The U.S. is a very young country—only about 250 years old.
- Change has often happened in bursts, not smoothly.
- History is a tug-of-war, not a straight line.
What repeated backsliding means
- Every major gain has been met with resistance.
- Rights are rarely secured forever; they are repeatedly fought over.
- Book bans and distorted history are part of a strategy to make people forget how hard progress was won.
On Trump’s reelection
- Anna says she was not surprised by Trump’s reelection.
- She saw it as part of the broader pattern of backlash whenever progress expands.
The big takeaway
- Feeling like “this is the worst it’s ever been” often reflects a limited historical memory.
- Many communities have lived through similarly terrifying eras, even if they looked different.
The Role of Activism: Different Strategies, Same Fight
Anna pushes back on the idea that social justice movements must choose one issue at a time.
Her view
- Black liberation, trans rights, women’s rights, disability justice, and queer liberation are all confronting the same underlying system.
- Fighting separately slows progress.
- The goal should be actual democracy, where all people are treated as human beings.
Multiple strategies are necessary
Anna says movements need both:
- people who are willing to burn the system down
- people who understand the system well enough to change it from within
She shares her own example:
- working within elite institutions like Stanford and Cambridge
- but using those spaces to insert Black feminist thought and create a path for others
Capitalism, Money, and Survival
The conversation also connects patriarchy to money and access.
Anna’s argument
- Capitalism is a result of patriarchy, not separate from it.
- Economic dependence has long been used to control women and other marginalized people.
- Money becomes a tool that sustains the original social order.
Why financial power matters
- Tori’s mission to help women get rich is framed as part of liberation.
- Anna agrees that you can’t fight for change if you’re exhausted, broke, and depleted.
- Financial stability gives people options, which makes resistance possible.
Personal Power and What Listeners Should Remember
The episode ends on a note of empowerment.
Anna’s message
- People are more powerful than the system wants them to believe.
- The system is made up, which means it can be remade.
- You do not need to feel guilty for accessing opportunities; the goal is to expand those opportunities for everyone.
Her advice in practice
- Use whatever access you have to:
- help others
- change institutions
- preserve history
- build alternatives
- Don’t confuse personal advancement with liberation unless it also creates room for others.
Notable Takeaways
- American patriarchy is a deliberate system, not a natural order.
- The Constitution was built to preserve hierarchy, especially for white men.
- Girls lose confidence early because socialization starts young.
- Progress is non-linear; backlash is part of the pattern.
- History matters because forgetting it makes people easier to manipulate.
- Money is political and financial independence is a tool for freedom.
- Multiple forms of justice work are connected and should be treated as such.
Recommended Next Step
- Read Erased: What American Patriarchy Has Hidden from Us by Anna Malaika Tubbs for a deeper dive into the history and structure of American patriarchy.
- For listeners, the episode’s practical lesson is to learn the system, protect your resources, and use your access to build collective power.