I've looked for this very thing, but so far haven't found it (in fact, I'm convinced that I had old books of interviews with Atwood that I gave away when we moved from Ontario that would have contained such material). *The Handmaid's Tale* came out in 1985, and I clearly remember at the time that everyone knew she was writing about Islamic fundamentalism, and linking it to Christian evangelicalism (which didn't really work, because Christian evangelicals had important leadership roles for women--but she couldn't resist the swipe at conservative American Christians). Then as the book became more popular amongst left-wing feminists, the Islamic element had to drop out, just as you say.

The question of what women actually want is a vexed one. I think most women have no idea about the macro-level; at the personal level, every woman wants unlimited power & unconditional love, with zero accountability. It is certainly the case that women are no happier now than they were before feminism (as meta-studies have conclusively shown--in fact, they're less happy). I think griping about things may be biologically hard-wired into women; it's part of how nature made sure that women got what they needed for themselves and their children from their cave-man partners. But as an organized political movement, the griping is poison.