“Kyriarchy” was coined by feminist theologian Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza in 1992 to describe her theory of interconnected, interacting, and self-extending systems of domination and submission—from “kyros”, master.

Kyriarchy encompasses sexism, racism, ableism, ageism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, homophobia, transphobia, fatphobia, classism, xenophobia, economic injustice, the prison-industrial complex, colonialism, militarism, and other dominating hierarchies.