If you’re raising boys, Andrew Tate may already be a familiar name in your household: He’s the social media personality who gained notoriety for his controversial views and influence on the so-called “manosphere,” the network of online communities focused on masculinity and anti-feminism.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom
told Vanity Fair during an interview published in late September
he had first heard of Tate from his eldest son. So yesterday when California First Partner and documentary filmmaker Jennifer Siebel Newsom joined us in Santa Barbara for the Most Powerful Women Summit,
Fortune’s Ellie Austin asked her how she talks to her kids (two sons and two daughters) about the manosphere.
She said it can take very little for misogynistic content to reach kids online today. When the family lived in Sacramento and her kids played competitive sports, she said “all you had to do was literally consume sports online,” and boys in particular “were fed, in a very short time period, misogynistic content.”
“It happens very, very quickly,” she continued. And girls aren’t spared: They’re “fed misogynistic content that teaches them to devalue themselves.”
Her own son, she said, had been “exposed” to Tate and other controversial figures, adding that we have a “horrific role model in the White House in terms of harassment and criminal behavior towards women.” (Tate is currently
being held in Miami while he fights extradition to the U.K., where he faces charges including rape and human trafficking. Romanian prosecutors
separately indicted Tate in September on charges including trafficking minors and money laundering. Tate, the
self-proclaimed misogynist, has denied all wrongdoing.)
“I just feel like our boys are searching for healthy role models,” she said. When asked whether there were any good examples today, she pointed to Bill Ready, the CEO of Pinterest, and Scott Galloway, a marketing professor at New York University who is also a podcast host, author, and serial entrepreneur who’s gained a large social media following. Galloway’s 2025 book,
Notes on Being a Man, focuses on the challenges facing boys and young men.
Siebel Newsom has explored the topic of boys and masculinity in her documentary
The Mask You Live In, and at the MPW Summit said culture has “sort of normalized bystander behavior,” in which people see misogyny and say nothing. She pointed to the Weinstein trial and the Epstein case, saying “there’s so many men…and some women who have held positions of power, but who have just kind of sat by and watched all of this behavior go down. And it’s very dangerous.”
“I feel such sadness for our young boys,” she continued.
Siebel Newsom’s goal as a parent is to “shift us back to the middle,” but her own mother, who raised five girls, has told her that “parenting in today’s day and age is harder than it was in her generation.”
“I appreciate when she says that,” Siebel Newsom said, “because I do think it’s really challenging.”
Want more from her conversation? Read about the legacy she hopes to leave as first partner.Sydney Lakesydney.lake@fortune.comThe Most Powerful Women Daily newsletter is Fortune’
s daily briefing for and about the women leading the business world. 
