After all those years of Maggie Thatcher (and a lot of Maggie Thatcher Clones at lower levels as well getting inspired by her as a role model), any idea that women in power could be relied on to be any less prone to megalomania doesn't convince somehow. And I think many people (men or women) who have found themselves working in places where the boss is a women will feel the same.

Of course, that could well be a consequence of the fact that to rise to the top in our society, it often helps to be a real bastard, regardless of gender. It might well be that this personality type is more characteristic of men, but there is still an adequate supply of female real bastards around.

I suspect that would even apply if we had a 50/50 balance in powerful positions.

Maybe if it were done the other way round, so that we concentrated on ways of stopping the real bastards getting into positions of power in the first place, and looked out for decent human beings instead, that would work out better; and maybe as a by product we'd find ourselves with a much higher proportion of women making the decisions.

That would also be likely to get in the way of setting up as an evil empire.