Was the Salem Witchcraft Hysteria Caused by a Fear of Women? Although there has been a long history of witchcraft, the main concentration is from the periods of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In the British North Americancolonies alone there were over 100 witchcraft trials alone, were 40 percent of the accusedwere executed. Now two professors, Carol F. Karlsen of history and Kai T. Erikson ofsociology, examine the Salem Witchcraft Hysteria to see if it was caused by a fear ofwomen and give two entirely different interpretations.The first professor, Carol F. Karlsen, agreed that the Salem Witchcraft Hysteriawas caused by a fear of women. She agrees that the belief in the Puritian culture, thatwomen were evil, existed because they were seen as a potential threat to the order of thesociety. That is why women were generally seen as witches. When witchcraft was initially seen, it was uncertain of wether or not it wouldbenefit the New England society, because of the fast changing conditions of the earlysettlement. By the late 1640s, New Englanders believed that a witchcraft belief system asintegral to their society. The Puritian rituals, myths, and symbols from then on were seenperpetuated to the belief that women were a danger to their society. This idea of womenconnected directly to witchcraft was only reinforced by the newer post-Reformation ideasabout women. West 2Puritanism in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century in England causedmuch controversy over the nature of women and their roles in society. Puritian andCatholic witch-hunters both believed that women were, evil, whorish, deceitful,extravagant, angry, vengeful, and, of course, insubordinate and proud. Women arealtogether a lumpe of pride, one author said in 1690-A masse of pride, even altogethermade of pride, and nothing else but pride. One of the many reasons that women werebeing seen in this way was from the increasing independence, impudence, masculine...
