Thousands of women have been killed, often burned alive, after being falsely accused of being witches. Witch hunts happened in many places, including the United States, and are still happening in some countries, notably India. In the Netherlands, there’s a movement to acknowledge this ugly past and its cultural link to persistent violence against women.
Witch Hunts in the Netherlands
Hundreds of women were murdered as witches in the Netherlands between 1472 and 1674. Last year a group of women there moved forward with a proposal for a National Witch Monument to remember the victims of the witch hunts. The activists linked the historical femicides to today’s misogyny.
“Witch, that’s what frightened men call women with power,” Dutch blog post by Bregje Hofstede, one of the founders of the movement. (my translation)
“Everything that might be linked with the accusation of being a witch – being older, being alone, having a big mouth – is something that people even now find it difficult to accept in a woman. Or more difficult than from a man.” Bregje Hofstede, Founder of Dutch Witch Monument Project.
Witch Hunts and Femicides in the United States
The Dutch are certainly not the only ones who see the connection between witch hunts and today’s misogyny and femicides. An article in the Guardian quotes Lucy Worsley (BBC miniseries on witch hunts): “The prejudices that led to witch-hunts haven’t completely disappeared. It’s still the case that women – especially odd-seeming, mouthy ones – often feel the anger of the men whose hackles they raise.”
The United States even has a national Office on Violence Against Women. It administers grant programs authorized by the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA of 1994), which was reenacted in 2022.
Femicide—the murder of women—remains horribly common in the United States and elsewhere. Almost five thousand women were murdered in the U.S. in 2021. Official Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) show that an intimate partner killed 34% of them.
Limited Data on Femicides
Intimate partner violence and murder-suicides (women are usually the victims) are likely much more common than what statistics tell us.
The truth is that we don’t know much about the murders of women in the U.S. The 2021 BJS data, for examplem only includes about 65% of law enforcement data.
As for death certificates, there is no checkbox for “domestic violence” or “intimate partner violence.” But unless the coroner or medical examiner chooses to comment on it, the information does not get into national statistics.
Activists like Dawn Wilcox, founder of Women Count USA, help fill in the gaps. Do you have information about a murdered woman not listed on that website? Do what I did and email [email protected] or use the contact form on the website.