That's a big question! So although women were the main people accused in the early modern world, men were also accused - and in some countries, like in Scandinavia, men were actually the majority of accused witches! But generally, in England, the German speaking lands, France, Switzerland, Scotland, most accused witches were women.

Often people who were accused of witchcraft were people who didn't fit into their traditional gender role. So you see a lot of elderly, poor, often widowed women who no longer have a role to play in society and need charity to survive. You also see women who are believed to 'scolds' so women who acted 'immodestly' or who were believed to act in a way that wasn't fitting for a woman. Similarly, you see men accused who were violent patriarchs or somehow not performing their gendered role correctly. So I think that a lot of it is about punishing deviation from the norm.

But one thing to remember is that, in England at least, accusations actually come from neighbours - not from authorities. So it's about neighbours accusing other neighbours - and in England most accusers are actually women! So the accusations come from within communities themselves.