We do authorize some female staff to cane – in any situation where a male member of staff in an equivalent position would be authorized, a female member of staff can expect to be authorized. Australian equal opportunities laws make this difficult to avoid.
There are girls schools that still use corporal punishment – or at least have not formally abolished it. In every case in the last thirty years or so that I am aware of, these schools have contrived to ensure that if corporal punishment is adminstered, it is by a female member of staff. They’ve normally done this by having a rule that only one member of staff may administer such punishment (typically the Head or Principal, or their Deputy) and that member of staff is female. If they had numerous staff authorized and had males and females in equivalent positions (as applies in our school) they’d have the same legal situation we have.