WHY  WOMEN?  (see also Gender Statistics)

1.  MISOGYNY:  negative views of women
                        clerical & culture as a whole
              women as weaker, lustful, more foolish,
                      easy prey for the Devil

2.  W/C AS “REVENGE OF THE WEAK”
            example of “English beggar witch”
            lowest person on social ladder likely
                to be a poor, old woman, often widow

3. DEMOGRAPHIC EXPLANATIONS
    a)  more old women in population than men
              due to differential mortality rates (Midelfort)

    b)  HAJNAL: Cambridge Population Group, 1970’s
                            describes
         WESTERN EUROPEAN MARRIAGE PATTERN
              response to 16^th C. economic contraction
              population increase stopped by drop in
                    birth rate, rather than rise in death rate
              birth rate controlled by
                    1) late marriage   men 25-30
                                      women 23-27
                    2) increase in those who never marry
                             % rises from 5% to 20%

              increase of pool of women vulnerable to w/c
                      due to larger number of older women
                      both spinsters (never married) and widows
              cultural fear of “unattached women” as “loose”
                         fear of old women as witches

4.   ANOMALOUS PROPERTY INHERITANCE
      pattern described for New England by
      Carol Karlsen, The Devil in the Shape of a Woman (1980's )

      INHERITANCE:  standard New England patter
             daughters: “marriage portions” at marriage
             sons: estate divided post-mortem
                     oldest son gets double portion
             widow: 1/3 of property, life interest only

       W/C accusations against
              recent widows with no sons & no brothers
              anomalous due to lack of direct male heirs

5. PSYCHOLOGICAL EXPLANATIONS:

Lyndal Roper, "W/C and Fantasy" article (Xerox packet)
             study of postpartum "lying in maids" in Augsburg, Germany
             accused of w/c by mothers of new-borns

   uses Melanie Klein’s theory of infant’s experience of
       “split image” of the mother:
        Good mother: available, nursing, comforting
        Bad mother: unavailable, source of anger

    asks why attitudes to women are “split” ?
         universal ambivalent infant experience of mother

Maria Tausiet, W/C and Infanticide in Aragon, Spain (xerox)
                 argues for actual child abuse & neglect as one
                 cause of child death; blame displaced to witches
             
 ******************************************************************************

GENDER STATISTICS of accused witches

England 80-90% women

Germany 80-90% women, except during panic trials
            Panic trials: % of men often reaches 25%
                       (trials stop when this % exceeds 30%)

Switzerland: 16-17^th C: 78% women, 22% men
                  15^th C: closer to 40% men

France: central area under jurisdiction of Parlement of Paris
             1,300 cases heard on appeal, over 50% men
                       (probably more women at initial local level)
               500 known local cases not appealed, 42% are men

Duchy of Lorraine:   (independent state on eastern French border)
                62% women, 38% men
  Peripheral areas:
                          Iceland 90% men   10% women
             (Baltic)   Estonia 60% men   40% women
                          Finland 50% men    50% women

W/C accusations as gender biased towards women
                 but not gender specific

Conclusion: witch hunting was not woman hunting per se