Okay Sephiroth wasn't anything like you described Besimudo. He was smooth yes, but that probably owes a lot to the date the game came out.

Women aren't powerful at all in the game. In fact they are probably the weakest in any FF. This excludes X where they were simply pointless (bar Lulu who was really badly underused).

Let's look at the main three:

Quistis: Starts off in a position of power. Within about two hours is fired. Within about five is overtaken by Squall (a rookie). Within ten is just a non entity in the game.

Selphie: Her introduction FMV, she falls over. During the game she does very little except act girly. When Squall is gone she relies on Zell in the prison (as does Quistis). She does have one small section in control, but that really didn't mean a lot.

Rinoa: She spends most of the game either sitting down, under the control of someone else, or being saved by Squall.

Other main females in the game either died, or were outsmarted by men.