The Patriarchy Didn’t Disappear—It Shape-Shifted
What Bill Maher’s “zombie lie” gets wrong about feminine empowerment and progress
Progress is not the finish line. Yet here we are, with Bill Maher and his panel calling Nike’s Super Bowl ad a “giant zombie lie,” suggesting that women don’t need reminders of their strength because we’ve already arrived at equality.
The ad in question, So Win, features some of the biggest stars in women’s sports—Caitlin Clark, Sabrina Ionescu, A’ja Wilson, Sha’Carri Richardson, and Jordan Chiles. Narrated by musician Doechii, it highlights the relentless doubts female athletes face with a powerful message: they’re constantly told what they can’t do—speak up, be ambitious, break records, or stand out. The refrain crescendos with a bold directive: “So win.”
The ad was bold, direct, and unapologetic—a celebration of resilience and success in the face of doubt—quickly became one of Nike’s fastest-growing videos, with over 66 million Instagram views in just days. But Maher wasn’t impressed. He dismissed it as perpetuating what he called a “zombie lie”—something that may have once been true but no longer reflects reality, though people continue to repeat it.
In his view, the patriarchy isn’t holding women back anymore, and empowerment messaging is unnecessary. After all, women have “won,” right?
Maher’s argument follows a familiar pattern: pointing to one example and claiming it represents reality across the board. During the same segment, he referenced the Barbie movie’s depiction of an all-male board of directors at Mattel, which he fact-checked by pointing out that the real Mattel board is split between men and women.
Sure, Bill, maybe Mattel’s boardroom is more balanced these days. But does that mean every boardroom across corporate America looks like that? Absolutely not.
And even if those seats are filled with women, let’s ask a better question: How many of those women feel free to bring their full selves to those spaces?
How many can breastfeed their babies in zoom meetings without judgment?
How many can say, “Hey, can we move this strategy session up a week? I’ll be in my follicular phase then—sharper, more creative, and ready to strategize.
The truth is, many women in these spaces—whether they realize it or not—are still contorting themselves to fit systems built by and for men. They’re rewarded for toughening up, silencing their intuition, and ignoring their bodies to survive and succeed.
That’s not equality; it’s assimilation—and the numbers make that painfully clear.
The Womanhood Penalty
Mothers face a 5% wage penalty per child, even after accounting for experience and education. Only 13% of women in the private sector have access to paid maternity leave. And shockingly, 23% of women return to work within two weeks of giving birth because they can’t afford more time off.
Women might have gained more seats at the table, but the table itself hasn’t changed. Only 32% of board seats in S&P 500 companies are held by women. Only 10.4% of Fortune 500 companies are led by women in 2024. Women occupy just 29% of management roles with revenue-generating responsibilities—the critical stepping stones to C-suite positions.
This isn’t equality. It’s survival.
The problem with Maher’s argument isn’t just that it’s dismissive—it’s that it rests on the myth of meritocracy. It assumes that once women are allowed into spaces that were historically closed to us, the playing field becomes level. But that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Just because women have entered the room doesn’t mean the rules have changed. They’re still scrutinized more harshly, held to higher standards, and given far less room for mistakes than their male counterparts. For women, visibility isn’t just power—it’s pressure. The higher they rise, the harsher the scrutiny. Decades of research show that women in high-stakes spaces don’t just battle external barriers—they battle the internalized voices of a culture that has questioned their competence for generations. That self-doubt isn’t personal; it’s inherited.
This Isn’t Pandering
Ads like Nike’s aren’t pandering. They’re radical reminders. For centuries, women have been told we’re too much—too emotional, too ambitious, too aggressive. Empowerment messaging exists not to inflate egos but to help women shed those false narratives and reconnect with their inherent strength, intuition, and capacity. It’s a reminder to reclaim space unapologetically, to push back against the limits the world still tries to place on us—not because we lack resilience, but because those limits are still very real.
And the patriarchy isn’t just an external system; it lives in our bodies and minds. Even as women rise in professional spaces, many are still breaking free from generations of conditioning that encouraged us to stay quiet, polite, and small. This is intergenerational trauma, passed down like an invisible inheritance from out mother, grandmothers, and great-great grandmothers. Healing from it takes time, and cultural messaging that affirms women’s power is part of that healing process.
As Maureen Murdock writes in The Heroine’s Journey:
“The task for today’s woman is to heal the wounding of the feminine that exists deep within herself and the culture.”
And that healing won’t come from squeezing into systems that weren’t designed for us in the first place.
Time for a New Table—And Women Are Already Building It
So no, Bill. The work isn’t done. Not even close. The patriarchy isn’t a “zombie lie”—it’s a shape-shifter. It’s still here, hiding in plain sight, baked into our boardrooms, our culture, and our deepest beliefs.
What we need isn’t less empowerment. We need a full-blown systems overhaul—one that doesn’t force women to harden just to survive. We need workplaces, leadership, and industries that honor a different way of leading, one that embraces equity, flexibility, and collective power.
And the best part? Women aren’t waiting for permission to change the rules. They’re already building new tables.
Women like, Reshma Saujani founder of Moms First, lobbying for paid leave, affordable childcare, and an economy that actually supports mothers instead of sidelining them. Or, Arlan Hamilton, breaking the cycle of exclusion in venture capital, directing millions of dollars toward founders who have been shut out of investment—women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs. And Shelley Zalis, through The Female Quotient, is ensuring that corporate leadership isn’t just diversifying in numbers but transforming in culture, making space for new ways of leading and decision-making.
These women—and countless others—aren’t waiting for slow-moving institutions to catch up. They’re forcing change, dismantling outdated models, and proving that leadership, funding, and success can be redefined on our terms.
Bill Maher calls women’s empowerment messaging a “zombie lie.” But the real lie is pretending that representation alone is enough. The real lie is thinking that because women have made it into the room, they’ve been given the same power to reshape it. The fight isn’t over, and the women who understand that are the ones shaping the future.
Like the Nike ad says, “You can’t win… so win.”
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