Woman Dictators

[The Burke Islands]

Empress Theodora? I suppose you wouldn’t want to count her since she only came to power because of her husband, but it’s still impressive to go from prostitute to empress.

I honestly believe there aren’t that many female dictators simply because males are more aggressive and charismatic on average. There are outliers of course, but the group of dictator candidates is likely dominated by men.

[Constitutional Technocracy of Minecraft]

The point of dictatorship is not by any means benevolent. In fact, typically the worse a dictator oppresses their people, the less likely they are to overthrow them (starving slum dwellers are far less effective revolutionaries than middle-class citizens). Please may you list one benevolent dictator in power today?

Depend on your definition of Benevolent, really.

benevolent

(Adjective)

1. Having a disposition to do good, i.e. "Chinese and Eastern mythologies describe dragons as benevolent"
2. Possessing or manifesting love for mankind.
3. Altruistic, charitable, good, just and fair.

[Bad Seed of Troy]

And with that I’d say we’re set, so NSG, we’re there any female dictators?

There are no female Hitlers and Mussolinis for the same reason that there aren't any female Jeff Dahmers.

Thank goodness.

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I don't think it would be fair to describe Thatcher as a dictator since democracy continued to function normally in the UK while she was in power, but she was very authoritarian. Indira Ghandhi, I would say it would be fair to call her a dictator because there was a time period of autocratic rule under her.

Considering that women holding office has become more common recently and that the world is moving in an illiberal, anti-democratic direction, I would say there is a good possibility of several woman dictators within the next few decades.

[Page]

Depend on your definition of Benevolent, really.

benevolent

(Adjective)

1. Having a disposition to do good, i.e. "Chinese and Eastern mythologies describe dragons as benevolent"
2. Possessing or manifesting love for mankind.
3. Altruistic, charitable, good, just and fair.

That definitely doesn't describe any dictator I know of and it doesn't describe many democratically elected leaders either.

[The Gipper]

Probably opening a can of worms because I will openly admit I'm not that well read on Myanmar / Burma, but I thought it was very strange how our media covered State Counsellor Suu Kyi during the refugee crisis a year or so back. From what I gathered from reporting, she's by far the most powerful political force in her nation, her position was invented out of thin air just for her. And yet when the western media discusses the horrible actions (what some have called genocide) against muslims in her country, she gets this half-hearted criticism because probably she would have spoke out against it if the men leading the military would let her. I just have a hard time swallowing that a male head of government would get the same reaction - I think he'd be talked about as being just as guilty as the military leaders if he kept silent and even toed the line on the issue a bit.

Like she's literally one of the most powerful forces in the nation, and to me it seemed like she's still seen by the world as a victim.

[The Free Joy State]

Empress Dowager Cixi?

I think Empress Wu Zetian is closer to the definition of a dictator than Express Dowager Cixi. Although Cixi definitely did autocratic things (such as -- reportedly -- ordering a royal consort to throw herself down the well), she did have a co-regrent for the vast majority of her reign (the Empress Dowager Ci'an).

Wu Zetian ruled in her own right as Empress Regent, horribly executed her opponents and apparently established her own secret police. That might meet the description for a dictator.

[Petrasylvania]

Based on what I read on NSG, apparently all females are inherently dictators.

[Donnegall]

Angela Merkel is a female dictator.

[Constitutional Technocracy of Minecraft]

benevolent

(Adjective)

1. Having a disposition to do good, i.e. "Chinese and Eastern mythologies describe dragons as benevolent"
2. Possessing or manifesting love for mankind.
3. Altruistic, charitable, good, just and fair.

That definitely doesn't describe any dictator I know of and it doesn't describe many democratically elected leaders either.

At least, most democratically elected leaders such as Donald Trump, Theresa May and Angela Merkel are legally forced to be far more benevolent (edit: in terms of their policies) than autocratic leaders such as Kim Jong-un, Xi Jinping and Ali Khamenei.

[Kanaria]

Depending on how you chose to define "dictator," there have been plenty of women who could fit the title in history; there haven't been many modern dictators who have been female, however, probably because historically most societies have been fairly patriarchal and so women who have risen to power have normally done so either hereditarily- and women typically only assumed the throne in hereditary monarchies when there were no convenient male heirs- or by court intrigue. Modern dictators are typically appointed by their predecessors or seize autocratic power after being elected to office, or are military officers who take power by using the military to topple the civilian government. None of these routes were generally as available to women as they were to men, again due to the patriarchal nature of most societies well into the latter part of the 20th century.

I'm not terribly familiar with Indira Gandhi, but it's plainly ridiculous to call Margaret Thatcher a dictator. She came to power by legitimate democratic means and lost power by legitimate democratic means.

Gandhi declared a state of emergency in India from 1975 to 1977 to silence her opposition and presided over numerous human rights violations, centralized power in the country, and lost the 1977 election. She came back in another election in 1980 and in a power play over Punjabi Sikhs sent troops to remove Sikh militants from the Golden Temple, damaging the temple and killing hundreds of innocents in June 1984. Four months later two Sikh bodyguards of hers shot her. She treads the water of dictatorship pretty heavily I'd say, but her power was gained and lost legitimately.

[Kanaria]

Angela Merkel is a female dictator.

Bullshit. Merkel's been legitimately elected, without use of force and has committed no rights violations, to my knowledge. "Letting nonwhites into great Germany" and "resolving the Eurozone crisis" are not violations of anyone's rights.

[Hammer Britannia]

Angela Merkel is a female dictator.

Yes

[Page]

Probably opening a can of worms because I will openly admit I'm not that well read on Myanmar / Burma, but I thought it was very strange how our media covered State Counsellor Suu Kyi during the refugee crisis a year or so back. From what I gathered from reporting, she's by far the most powerful political force in her nation, her position was invented out of thin air just for her. And yet when the western media discusses the horrible actions (what some have called genocide) against muslims in her country, she gets this half-hearted criticism because probably she would have spoke out against it if the men leading the military would let her. I just have a hard time swallowing that a male head of government would get the same reaction - I think he'd be talked about as being just as guilty as the military leaders if he kept silent and even toed the line on the issue a bit.

Like she's literally one of the most powerful forces in the nation, and to me it seemed like she's still seen by the world as a victim.

Suu Kyi is absolutely complicit in the ethnic cleansing.

The Western media loves to praise anyone and anything which seems to move in a democratic direction, and they don't want to admit when they're wrong.

Take a look at the Arab Spring. When it started, the media shouting about how people are bringing democracy to the Middle East. When the bloodshed started and new governments became just as terrible as the old ones like in Egypt and Libya, the media went silent. They don't want to be exposed, so they just keep quiet.

[Kanaria]

Angela Merkel is a female dictator.

Yes

No.

[Constitutional Technocracy of Minecraft]

Angela Merkel is a female dictator.

Angela Merkel was democratically elected in Germany's 2005 national elections

[Tinhampton]

her position was invented out of thin air just for her.

I defer to Article 59f of the Constitution of Myanmar.

[Petrasylvania]

Angela Merkel is a female dictator.

Angela Merkel was democratically elected in Germany's 2005 national elections

"So was Hitler" in 3... 2... 1...

[Page]

Based on what I read on NSG, apparently all females are inherently dictators.

We are just two or three feminisms away from all men being castrated and put in concentration camps.

[Kanaria]

Angela Merkel is a female dictator.

Angela Merkel was democratically elected in Germany's 2005 national elections

Not to mention in 2009, 2013 and 2017.

[Dooom35796821595]

Angela Merkel was democratically elected in Germany's 2005 national elections

"So was Hitler" in 3... 2... 1...

Actually, Hitler was never elected, he was appointed by Hindenburg and simply absorbed the presidency into his job when Hindenburg died.

[Kanaria]

Based on what I read on NSG, apparently all females are inherently dictators.

We are just two or three feminisms away from all men being castrated and put in concentration camps.

We'll never get there. don't worry. Besides, you'd need cooperative men for that to happen.

[Constitutional Technocracy of Minecraft]

Angela Merkel was democratically elected in Germany's 2005 national elections

"So was Hitler" in 3... 2... 1...

Subsequently, she has made no attempt to seize absolute power, caused no human rights abuses (allowing refugees into Germany is not a human rights abuse - rather, it vindicates the human rights of the refugees), and if she was voted out of power tomorrow she would step down.

[The Gipper]

Probably opening a can of worms because I will openly admit I'm not that well read on Myanmar / Burma, but I thought it was very strange how our media covered State Counsellor Suu Kyi during the refugee crisis a year or so back. From what I gathered from reporting, she's by far the most powerful political force in her nation, her position was invented out of thin air just for her. And yet when the western media discusses the horrible actions (what some have called genocide) against muslims in her country, she gets this half-hearted criticism because probably she would have spoke out against it if the men leading the military would let her. I just have a hard time swallowing that a male head of government would get the same reaction - I think he'd be talked about as being just as guilty as the military leaders if he kept silent and even toed the line on the issue a bit.

Like she's literally one of the most powerful forces in the nation, and to me it seemed like she's still seen by the world as a victim.

Suu Kyi is absolutely complicit in the ethnic cleansing.

The Western media loves to praise anyone and anything which seems to move in a democratic direction, and they don't want to admit when they're wrong.

Take a look at the Arab Spring. When it started, the media shouting about how people are bringing democracy to the Middle East. When the bloodshed started and new governments became just as terrible as the old ones like in Egypt and Libya, the media went silent. They don't want to be exposed, so they just keep quiet.

I suppose maybe that's comparable. I do recall hearing far more caution about the Arab Spring potentially being a bad thing in media reporting here in the US as it was occurring, but maybe it is because the US has far more interest in the Middle East given recent history than in South East Asia.

I still can't help but feel that she had a little extra shielding from being called out because she was a female head of government, even if you're probably right that she also was shielded because she gained power through an election. My point was perhaps we are slower to recognize female authoritarians because of our own views about what it is to be feminine (even in the ultra-left US media).

[Xiaodong]

Probably opening a can of worms because I will openly admit I'm not that well read on Myanmar / Burma, but I thought it was very strange how our media covered State Counsellor Suu Kyi during the refugee crisis a year or so back. From what I gathered from reporting, she's by far the most powerful political force in her nation, her position was invented out of thin air just for her. And yet when the western media discusses the horrible actions (what some have called genocide) against muslims in her country, she gets this half-hearted criticism because probably she would have spoke out against it if the men leading the military would let her. I just have a hard time swallowing that a male head of government would get the same reaction - I think he'd be talked about as being just as guilty as the military leaders if he kept silent and even toed the line on the issue a bit.

Like she's literally one of the most powerful forces in the nation, and to me it seemed like she's still seen by the world as a victim.

Ang Suu Kyi is complicit in genocide, but she herself is not the real power in Myanmar - the military still hold that role and if they wanted to could probably get rid of her if she kicked up a fuss. She's also lionised in the western press not because she is a women or came to power in elections, but because she has endured a Nelson Mandela-esque personal struggle (being under house arrest for decades unable to see her family after winning an election fairly in 1988) against a very nasty military government.

I think Empress Wu Zetian is closer to the definition of a dictator than Express Dowager Cixi. Although Cixi definitely did autocratic things (such as -- reportedly -- ordering a royal consort to throw herself down the well), she did have a co-regrent for the vast majority of her reign (the Empress Dowager Ci'an).

Wu Zetian ruled in her own right as Empress Regent, horribly executed her opponents and apparently established her own secret police. That might meet the description for a dictator.

Both would be dictators - whilst Cixi was officially co-regent iirc she locked up the Emperor and exercised de facto control throughout her rule. De facto power is after all more important than official power (otherwise Stalin wasn't a dictator until WW2)