In the 17th-century women were much more likely than men to be accused of being a witch because of the work they did. Only 15% of people branded witches were men. Womens’ jobs had a much higher chance of accidentally causing illness or even death in others according to a Cambridge University study.
The kind of work they did concerned food preparation and healthcare. And bearing in mind the crude knowledge of the time there was a reasonable risk that what they did might cause harm which led to claims that they were witches. And we have to bring in the fact that women, as today, were more likely to live with a domestic cat so the cat was accused of being inhabited by the devil.
According to the study (Work, Gender and Witchcraft in Early Modern England), women in the 17th century were more likely than men to be accused of witchcraft both due to the nature of their work as mentioned and the gendered divisions of labor during that time. The women of that era were often engaged in specific high-risk sectors, such as healthcare and agriculture, where hazards were unpredictable and misfortunes were highly individuated.
The suspect Joan Gill had gained a reputation as a witch because:
her husband did eate of a mess of milke which his wife would [wished] not he should have eaten of, & the spone wherewith he did eate his milke would not out of his mouth until his wife awaked which was gone to bed before.
The study.
The gendered divisions of labor meant that women made up a significant portion of the workforce in these high-risk sectors. Moreover, the study suggests that the symbolic associations tied to women’s roles in managing substances like health or nourishment may have contributed to the perception of women as having a certain power or influence over those areas.
This gendered division of labor and its associated symbolism likely played a role in the disproportionate accusations of witchcraft against women, as they were often the ones primarily associated with specific occupations linked to high-risk and ‘strange’ effects. Men, on the other hand, were less likely to be accused in these female-dominated work domains, and when accused, it was usually in different contexts or for different reasons.
It’s important to note that the gendered dynamics and reasons for witchcraft accusations were complex and influenced by a variety of social, cultural, and economic factors beyond just the nature of work.
Link to the study: https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0424.12717
