To what extent were the European Witch Trials between 1580-1660 a result of the misogynistic views of the men in power and their desire for Patriarchy?

On the other hand, the feminist argument for the cause of the Early-Modern European witch trials has been criticised by other historians, such as Thomas Fudge, due to the large number of men also accused of witchcraft, alongside the female victims. Fudge suggests that “making witch-hunting gendercide... is unsupportable and patently absurd”. Fudge’s argument is to a degree persuasive as he does base his argument on solid statistical evidence, such as the fact that a quarter of the accused witches across the whole of Europe were male.

Fudge’s viewpoint, that the witch trials were not a result of the misogyny of the period, is supported by David Pickering, when he describes a witch as “an old hag”, which was the traditional image of a witch, shown through the many engravings and woodcuts depicting witches as old women. Therefore, it could be argued that women were the main group accused due to the conventional image of a witch being established as a woman, not because of any patriarchal views held by men.

Barstow acknowledges these points, however, and manages to support her argument in regards to these facts; she acknowledges that “about 20 percent of the accused were male” and responds with the fact that most of them “were related to women already convicted” Barstow uses many examples to support this; for instance, in the case of Claudine Simonette and her son, Antoine, in Lorraine, Claudine was convicted, but Antoine set free, having only been accused due to his mother’s conviction. As a result of Barstow’s explanation of these factors, her argument becomes much more persuasive for the cause of the witch trials of Early-Modern Europe being caused by the misogyny of the period and the male desire for patriarchy.

In addition, it must be noted that the witch craze came about at a time when death rates had been significantly lowered from prior decades and people were living longer. A portion of these people who were living longer were women, specifically widows. An unmarried woman past birthing age was considered a burden on society. Though women were starting to work more during this period, widows of an older age could not work as easily as those who were younger and as they had no family of infants to care for either, they were useless to society as a whole. The “old hag,” described by Pickering as the main target of the trials, could easily be relating to older widows. These women generally lived alone and often had a cat, who would be seen as a familiar to the witch-obsessed population, though there were many cats as pets in this age as they would catch the rodents, helping to stop the spread of disease.

There is also another theory, related to Pickering’s established image of a witch, that focuses on Alewives. The brewing and selling of ale was actually a predominantly female profession in history, with records indicating this as far back as the 14th century. When you view images of these Alewives, they are often wearing a tall hat, sometimes with a point at the end and the majority of these workers were either married or widowed women. However, around about the start of the witch craze in Europe, women were being ousted from their sources of individual income as men decided they wanted to sell the ale themselves. Unlike women, men of any marital status had an established legal and social status within the community and they were able to commercialise the industry.

As men started to take over the industry, women are seen to be pushed back into their previously designated roles in the domestic sphere. In addition, evidence from the London Brewers Guild suggests that the majority of women still selling ale at this time were widows and therefore independent women who did not have a husband on which to rely for income. Though this may have been due to new laws that limited and prohibited women’s rights. For example, an order of 1540, in the city of Chester deemed that women between 14-40 were no longer permitted to sell ale, cutting the vast majority of women out of the market and allowing only those not of childbearing age to participate.

The relation of Alewives to the witch craze may seem like a stretch, but events such as the witch trials in Europe must be viewed within the context of their time. The ale industry ousting women at this time only goes to support Barstow’s argument that the witch trials were a war against women. Especially when it is considered that Alewives were often mocked by men and portrayed as sexually deviant, similarly to how the witches are portrayed in contemporary woodcuts and paintings. While men and women both sold ale, the Alewife demonisation continued, however only the female sellers were negatively affected by this. Alewives were considered as disobedient wives in a time when men were used to ruling over the female population. In a time when women were starting to climb and make their own lives for themselves, the men dragged them back down; they stole their independence and their livelihoods in an attempt to keep women in the place the men had assigned to and to take the money that should have been theirs.

It cannot be denied that women were the ones to suffer the most from the witch trials in Early-Modern Europe and that is because the trials were designed that way. Women were the target of the Patriarchy because the common woman had started to realise that she was worth more and was able to do more with her life. This went against everything the men had enforced upon them across the centuries and it seems they decided drastic action was required.