Although there are a number of related, historical articles online, thought maybe this one stood out and worth a mention.
Women as witches: past, present and future
Source: Dr Charlotte-Rose Millar / The University of Queensland
If you ask someone what they think of when they hear the word ‘witch’ most people will come up with a similar image: old, haggard, ugly, bent-nosed, broomstick-laden and, above all, female.
But how accurate is this stereotype?
Witchcraft was a crime in Europe during what is generally referred to as the early modern period: that is, the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries. Different countries enacted different laws to deal with witches but, for the most part, by the mid-16th century witchcraft was a secular crime, one that could be punished by imprisonment, pillory or execution. During this period, approximately 90,000 people were formally accused of witchcraft and about half of this number were executed. That’s 45,000 deaths.
A pillory – a wooden device that trapped the victim by the head and hands so they could be subjected to public abuse.
So where do women come in? Well, it depends on what country you were in but, on the whole, women made up the vast majority of those accused and executed. In England, we estimate that women made up approximately 90 per cent of the accused; in the largely German-speaking Holy Roman Empire, this number was 76 per cent; in Hungary, 90 per cent; in Switzerland, over 95 per cent; and in parts of France, 76 per cent. There are exceptions to this trend. In Iceland, women made up only eight per cent of the accused and low figures can also be seen in Russia (32 per cent) and Estonia (40 per cent). But, for the most part, and especially in Western Europe, women were far more likely to be accused of witchcraft than men.
Witches were generally defined as people who made a pact with the Devil in exchange for magical power to commit evil acts.
They were believed to join with the Devil, meet with him at night-time sabbaths, pledge homage, engage in lurid sex, kill children and maim pregnant women. They were also believed to make men impotent – in some cases by actually stealing their genitals.
https://shorthand.uq.edu.au/small-change/women-as-witches/