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16th Century Gender Roles

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The Role of Gender in 16th Century European Witch Trails
This annotated bibliography explores the contribution gender identity made to the ‘witch craze’ of 16th century Europe. The texts analysed provide varying insights into the issue and its causes, helping to shed light and add reason to the seemingly incomprehensible acts of the European witch trials.

Mencej, Mirjam. 2011. “The Role of Gender in Accusations of Witchcraft: The Case of Eastern Slovenia”. Český Lid 98 (4). Institute of Ethnology, Czech Academy of Sciences: 393–412. http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.lib.monash.edu.au/stable/42640635.

Mirjam Mencej pieces together the childhood memories of many different people from a small village in Eastern Slovenia in order to understand how …show more content…
This article presents the findings that while not solely at blame, as stated in a previously analysed source, pre-existing social ideas of misogyny played a large part in the accusation of women as witches, as did the rise of the catholic church and practise of medical science. Thus, it was a combination of these elements that lead to the gender bias evident in European witch trials. This source highlights the idea that instead of one event being the leading cause for gender bias, I may have been multiple issues …show more content…
This source presents an opposing view to that of the above texts, Kent believes that men were accused just as often as women and not only because they were related to a woman accused of witchcraft. The article claims that men were accused for the same reason as women, to assert and publicise gender ideals. This claim is supported by evidence of men accused of witchcraft being “feminised” or presenting feminine traits, and accused women refusing to conform to feminine gender ideals. While lacking some statistic evidence on the amount of men prosecuted, Kent does however present and interesting and controversial take on the role of gender in witch

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