A female dictator; a dictatorial state personified as female.
1821, John Quincy Adams, address delivered on 4 July, 1821, cited in Antony Jay (ed.), The Oxford Dictionary of Political Quotations, Oxford University Press, 1997, p. 4,
America […] well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own […] she would involve herself beyond the power of extraction, in all the wars of interest and intrigue […] which assume the colours and usurp the standard of freedom. The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force […] She might become dictatress of the world.
1980, William L. Andrews, The Literary Career of Charles W. Chesnutt, cited in Thomas Votteler (ed.), Short Story Criticism, Farmington Hills, MI: Cengage Gale, Volume 7, 1991, p. 29,
Wellington’s first wife does not belong among the overstuffed dictatresses of the white folks’ kitchen.