In Western European Witch hunts the majority of those accused were women for example countries like England, Scotland and the states that make up modern day Germany. However, in other parts of Europe the majority of those accused of witchcraft were men the most famous of cases being witchcraft accusations in Russia and then Estonia, Iceland.

In both cases historians argue that the causes of witchcraft accusations and trials is mainly a result of societal issues. For example, women were more likely to be accused of witchcraft because they were on average at a much lower economic standing than men. Macfarlane and Thomas argue that in times of economic pressure people were less able to donate to the poor and so compensated for their guilt by accusing the poor of witchcraft.

Kivelson argues that in early modern Russia people who were more likely to disrupt social hierarchies were accused of witchcraft. As a result it was more men than women because men were more likely to be literate and so could disrupt the hierarchy by doing something such as writing against the Church. These men would in turn be accused of witchcraft.

One of the many examples of men accused of witchcraft is Johannes of Juniusburg. He is a useful example because he was a man of high social standing accused of witchcraft in Bamberg (Germany). Showing that anyone was vulnerable to witchcraft accusations mainly because people such as Johannes who were accused of witchcraft would then be tortured and would give a fake confession and give out names of anyone they knew allegedly claiming that they saw them at Sabbath (name for the place which witches were accused of meeting the devil). Torture would result in hundreds of random accusations in a very short timespan. Here is a quote from letter written by Johannes after he was tortured that shows that men were indeed accused “six have confessed against me at once: the Chancellor, his son, Neudecker, Zaner, Hoffmaisters Ursel, and Hoppfen Els – all false, through compulsion”. Suggesting that these men were also tortured due to suspicion of witchcraft.

Also something extra that I remember from my reading but I am not confident enough to comment on is the fact that men who were married to accused witches would also be punished.

Sources:

Kivelson, V,‘ Witchcraft Trials in Russia: History and Historiography ’,in B.P Levack (‘ed.’) The Oxford Handbook of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America (Oxford,2013),

Rowlands, A,‘ Witchcraft and Gender in Early Modern Europe ’,in B.P Levack (‘ed.’) The Oxford Handbook of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America (Oxford,2013

primary source https://history.hanover.edu/texts/bamberg.html