By October 1692, 19 people had been executed, 1 man pressed to death, 150 people languished in prison, and about 200 more stood accused of witchcraft. (Gragg 225) Why was there such an outbreak of witchcraft in Salem? What was the reasoning that women were the “evils” of the village? To the question of whether such superstitions and folklore involving the practice of evil had been more easily applied to women than to men, the observable, historical answer is yes. To the question of whether the long Witch Hunt was a conspiracy of men against women, the answer is again yes. Female evil and male innocence were accepted as unquestioningly as the appearance of the moon every night and the sun every day. Add to all this, the need to find those responsible when crisis and cataclysm occurred. Women were the direction which was seen as the reason why. But still, throughout history there have been "witch hunts" not only of women but mass genocides of races and ethnicities thought the world.  

The Holocaust of the Jews during World War II is the most recognized mass genocide. An understanding of the gendered strategies of incarceration and extermination pursued by the Nazis throws important light upon the Jewish holocaust, and genocidal strategies as a whole. (http://www.gendercide.org/case_witchhunts.html)

Another hysteria was during the McCarthyism of the 1950’s accusing American citizens of communism was the last famous witch-hunt of the 20^th century. Some went to prison for refusing to answer questions that violated their constitutional rights. The term witch-hunt is used in modern times to describe any official investigation carried out to uncover alleged subversive activities but actually used to harass those with differing viewpoints.

McCarthy said, “We have changed a new era of politics where the great mother goddess is the president of the League of Women Voters and the minor gods are the three presidents of the television networks. They’re the ones who decide who the candidates are and no one else has a choice.” (Williams)

Few people are aware that witch-hunts still claim thousands of lives every year, especially in the countries of sub-Saharan Africa, and above all in South Africa. Witch-hunts in South Africa have become "a national scourge," according to Phumele Ntombele-Nzimande of the country's Commission on Gender Equality. (Quoted in Gilbert Lewthwaite, "South Africans go on witch hunts," Baltimore Sun, September 27, 1998.) The phenomenon is centered in the country's poverty-stricken Northern Province, where "legislators counted 204 witchcraft-related killings [from 1985-95] ... Police counted 312 for the same period. Everybody agreed both numbers were gross underestimates." (Neely Tucker, "Season of the Witch Haunts Africa," The Toronto Star, August 1, 1999.) In 1996 The Observer (UK) reported that "the precise statistics are not known, but the deaths from witch-burning episodes number in the hundreds each year and the trend appears to be on the rise." (David Beresford, "Ancient superstitions, fear of witches cast spell on new nation," reprinted in The Ottawa Citizen, June 18, 1996.) (http://www.gendercide.org/case_witchhunts.html) Also, In Africa , the belief in witchcraft is strong, common and widespread. Over the years, claims of witchcraft have been used to abuse the universally recognized human rights enshrined in the African Charter on Human and People's Rights. In many African countries, to call somebody a witch automatically makes the person unqualified for human rights protection. To accuse somebody of witchcraft is like passing a death sentence on that person. Those accused of witchcraft are tortured, persecuted and killed. They are subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment by gangs, mobs, pastors, witch doctors, parents and family members in the name of exorcism or to elicit confessions. Those alleged to be witches and wizards are victims of jungle justice, extrajudicial killing, forced exile and disappearance. In Africa those abused in the name of witchcraft are mainly the vulnerable members of the population—the poor, the elderly, women, children and people with disabilities. (http://www.iheu.org/witch-hunts-and-human-rights-abuses-africa)

Salem Witch Trials

Women and Witches today