a bonobo humanity?

Have there been any female dictators? I’m thinking of the more or less modern era, so ruling out Catherine the Great and … I can’t think of any others. And of course some might want to argue that Thatcher was a bit of a dictator, but….
As for the males, whether we’d want to call Putin, Xi, Erdoğan, Nazarbaev, Aliyev, Khamenei, Lukashenko, Kabila, Castro, Kim Jong-Un, Htin Kyaw, Hun Sen, etc, dictators or some other things (and the list here covers only a small number of candidates), is a question. There’s no hard and fast definition, obviously. In any case there are no females on this list, and if I made it twice as long that would still be the case. 

There is of course the case of Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh, who was Prime minister from June 1996 to July 2001 and again from January 2009 to August 2024. Her story is an extraordinarily complex one, in a nation that has experienced massive division and violence. From Wikipedia:

Except for her husband, children and sister Sheikh Rehana, Hasina’s entire family was murdered during the 15 August 1975 Bangladeshi coup d’état which saw the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Hasina, Wazed and Rehana were visiting Europe at the time of the assassination. They took refuge in the house of the Bangladeshi ambassador to West Germany; before taking up an offer of political asylum from Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of India.

Clearly Hasina’s family were heavily involved in Bangladesh’s extremely divided and violent politics, and it seems her own position shifted over the decades from leftist reformism to something more punitive and survivalist. And needless to say, like Golda Meir, Indira Gandhi, Benazir Bhutto, Margaret Thatcher, Angela Merkel and just about any other female political leader of the last century, she would have been surrounded by ambitious males, and might have felt that more than a pinch of male ruthlessness might be required to stay on top. Not enough to prevent Gandhi and Bhutto from being murdered, however.  

Politics, and life in general, seems to be a little less nasty in Scandinavian countries, however, as Rutger Bregman describes it in his hopeful book Humankind. As of early 2026, northern Europe has female Prime Ministers in Denmark, Iceland, Latvia and Lithuania, and Iceland also has a female President. These are nowadays the sorts of countries that would never tolerate a wannabe dictator like Frump, and I think you would find, overall, a relationship between female leadership (especially backed up by female advisors and other females in government) and a more generally contented and humane society. This is just starting to happen in a world where it has virtually never happened before.  

The USA, that benighted country, has never had a female monarch as yet (I explained in a previous post that the country’s federal system is essentially an elected monarchy), but both Hilary Clinton (2016) and Kamala Harris (2024) came closer to being the first than any other females. Clinton actually won the  popular vote by a large margin, and Harris’ loss dumbfounded many, most especially my good self, because Trump’s clearly criminal behaviour during and after the 2020 election, and his long criminal record, should have disqualified him from running, as well as rendering him a losing candidate. But then, it’s the USA we’re talking about.   

Frump is now eighty going on nine, and angling to be an eternal dictator, which is very likely to happen. Another eighty years should not be a problem for this eternal child. Sadly, as a mere mortal, ageing naturally, I won’t live to see it. Still, there will be elections, perhaps, and claims about term limits, but can any of this compete with high finance and crypto-currency? I very much doubt it. 

But really, there are congressional elections in November, which Frump is trying to find a way to subvert, which of course is interesting to observe from a relatively safe place here in Australia. I suspect he’s determined to use his monarchical powers to declare massive overseas and internal interference, and to bring about military intervention. Elections will be suspended, martial law will be declared, and nuclear readiness will be directed, mostly at China, but there will be others in league. Will this be the time for Australia to gain the ascendancy?

Sorry, I funtasise. I was talking about female leadership. I don’t really understand how Frump became the USA’s king again, after all the previous shite, but since most people in that country are acting as if this is all normal, we have to expect a long if not eternal rule. Here in Australia we’ll be forced to speak New Yorkinese, and women will be forced underground together. This, if we can somehow manage it – but we excel  in sorority – is where we can regroup, and foregather, and, seeded by a generous handful of male sisters, plan a massive return to prominence… 

References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheikh_Hasina

Rutger Bregman, Humankind: a hopeful history, 2019

https://www.councilwomenworldleaders.org/current-women-head-of-state-and-government