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I've been a lawyer for over a decade and have worked with many female lawyers, including at the supervisory level, and I can't say that I've ever seen a situation where empathy inappropriately played a role in any attorney's decision, whether male or female. I will grant that I spent a long time doing oil and gas work where it would be difficult to find a situation where empathy would even come into play, but for the past few years I've done litigation work that involves defending unsympathetic companies against suits brought by highly sympathetic plaintiffs, my boss and two other supervising partners are women, and I haven't seen any women ever back off for what would be considered empathetic reasons. The only judge I've ever seen who acted overly sympathetic toward plaintiffs was an 80-year-old white guy in West Virginia. And he's no longer on the bench. I also haven't dealt with many female judges in this context, but the one I have dealt with was more of a stickler for the rules than her male counterparts. I think this, though, is a consequence of her being a judge in a county that doesn't see a ton of these cases and thus hasn't had the opportunity to go on autopilot.
I have certainly seen bad women attorneys, but they were all bad in the same ways that men are bad attorneys: They're lazy and/or sloppy. There are a few male plaintiff's attorneys I deal with who will let my client out of the case at the slightest resistance, because not doing so would mean that they have to argue a motion. But talking about empathy in the context of practicing law doesn't make sense, because a large percentage of law is purely transactional, and in litigation your job is to defend the interests of your client, and being able to empathize with your client is a good thing, not a bad thing. It certainly prevents the laziness from taking over. And in judicial contexts, there are two sides to every story. You seem to be making the argument that women would be more empathetic to a defendant from a disadvantaged group. But why would this be the case? If empathy is the overriding factor, they might just as easily be overly empathetic toward the victim.
Which brings me to my final point: Even if your premise is correct, and female judges will be empathetic to criminal defendants, you're basing your conclusion on the idea that there is some kind of Platonian "correct" outcome, and that male judges consistently achieve this outcome. What constitutes a correct outcome is a political question and not a legal one in instances where the judge has discretion, like sentencing, and the appropriate response would be for legislatures to revise sentencing guidelines if sentences become too lenient. But beyond that, there's the possibility as well, that male judges are simply too harsh, and that the overriding goal of public safety is ill-served by oversentencing; maybe it's the women judges who are closer to achieving the policy goals the criminal code exists to implement. I'd be a little more cautious before going down the overly reductive road that a legal system that is majority women will somehow cause the whole thing to go to shit, just because it conforms to whatever stereotypes or personal policy preferences that you have.
I googled and spent all of two minutes not finding stats on this but my perception (dated now) was that women made up large majority of grads who went into public interest law
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