Soon after the witch trials died out in the western world, the wise men of the enlightenment invented a figure of 9 million witches that burned on the stakes. The 9 million witches were supposed to have been old, sick and poor women, suspect because of their deviant age and looks but essentially harmless victims of the horrid and cruel Dark Ages. The numbers have since come down to 100 000 trials and 40 000-50 000 executions between 1450 and 1700 and the social characteristics of the witches, too have become less distinctly deviant. The proportion of women among the accused, however, is still considered notable: traditionally a rough 2/3 in the Western Europe, whereas in the eastern "peripheries" the majority of witches were male. During the last two decades, this picture has been changing, too, and a growing proportion of witches even in the Western Europe has turned out to have been male.1 Some recent historians have even claimed that the proportion of men among the accused has been deliberately downplayed. 2 Despite the growing number of men who have been found to have been accused in witch-trials in various parts of Europe, the image of a woman-hunt persists in popular feminisms. Academic historians, as well as modern feminist scholars have also produced a variety of answers to the everintriguing question why so many of the accused witches were female and - more recently - what this reveals us about the role of women in early modern society. The image of a witch has been pregnant with meaning throughout the history of women's and feminist studies in the 20th and early 21st centuries and the historiography echoes important themes in the women's and feminist studies

About Author:

Dr. Raisa Maria Toivo, Title of Docent work at Academy Research Fellow.

Room: Pinni B3092
Admittance: by agreement
Phone: 050 318 6226
e-Mail: raisa.toivo@[at]uta.fi

Dr. Raisa Maria Toivo Specialties:

Early modern period, history of Finland, the Long Reformation and Confessionalism:

- religion, lived religion, superstition
- witches and witchcraft,
- gender
- domestic violence, esp parent abuse
- the history of law and the administration of justice

Dr. Raisa Maria Toivo Projects:

- Academy of Finland Academy Research Fellow Project: Catholic Reformation in Lutheran Finland (2015-2020)
- "Honour Thy Father and Thy Mother"
- Violence Against Parents in the North of Europe (2013-2015),
- History of Society: Re-thinking Finland 1400-2000 (2011-2017) ,

Something nice:

- podcast on parent abuse in early modern finland
- podcast on rosaries, gender and emotion

Dr. Raisa Maria Toivo Publications

Monographs and edited collections (peer reviewed):

- Raisa Maria Toivo: Faith and Magic in Early Modern Finland. Palgrave Macmillan 2016, http://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9781137547262
- Tiina Miettinen & Raisa Maria Toivo (eds): mita valia on historialla. TUP 2016. http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-44-9969-2
- Marko Nenonen & Raisa Maria Toivo:Writing Witch Hunt Histories. Brill 2013, http://www.brill.com/products/book/writing-witch-hunt-histories
- Raisa Maria Toivo & Marianna Muravyeva: Gender in Late Medieval and Early modern Europe (Routledge 2012),
https://www.routledge.com/products/9780415537230
- Katajala-Peltomaa, Sari & Toivo, Raisa Maria: Noitavaimo ja Neitsytaiti. Naisten arki keskiajalta uuden ajan aulkuun. Atena 2009.
http://www.atenakustannus.fi/tilaukset/kirja/271
- Toivo, Raisa Maria: Witchcraft and Gender in Early Modern Finland: Finland and the Wider European Experience. Ashgate 2008.
https://www.routledge.com/products/9780754664543 or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0754664546?keywords=Toivo%20Raisa&qid=1454396971&ref_=sr_1_4&sr=8-4
- Suomen historian kartasto. (Toim Haapala, Pertti & Toivo, Raisa). Karttakeskus 2007.
- Toivo, Raisa Maria: Mother, Wife, Witch. Authority and Status in Court Record Narratives. (diss. University of Tampere 7.10.2006)
- Toivo, Raisa Maria: Kruunun ja rahvaan tiet. Pohjanmaan teiden historia suurvalta-ajalta Suomen sotaan. In: Salminen, Tapio & Toivo, Raisa - Maria & Haavisto, Timo: Pohjanmaan kautta/Via Osterbotten. Road Museum's Publications 15. Jyvaskyla 1997. [Text in Finnish and Swedish, - English Summary: Crown's roads and Peasant's Roads] pp123-244, 391-392, 414-424 (notes 278-545).
- Nenonen, Marko & Toivo, Raisa Maria: Tienraivausta Pohjois-Karjalassa. 1550-1809. In: Matti Turunen: Tienraivausta Pohjois-Karjalassa. Tiemuseon
- Julkaisuja 14. Jyvaskyla 1996. [English Summary: Clearing the Way in North Carelia] pp. 15-105, 273-282.
- Paholainen, noituus ja Maria - kristinuskon kaantopuoli. Pahuuden kuvasto vanhassa maailmassa. SKS 2004.

Peer reviewed academic articles:

- Toivo, Raisa Maria: Lived Lutheranism and Daily amgic in Seventeenth-Centtury Finland. In: Kathryn A. Edwards: (ed.) Everyday Magic in Early Modern Europe. Ashgate 2015.
- Toivo, Raisa Maria: Violence between parents and children: Courts of Law in early modern Finland. In Marianna Muravyeva (ed.) Domestic Disturbances, Patriarchal Values.Violence, Family and Sexuality in Early Modern Europe, 1600-1900. Routledge 2016.
- Nenonen, Marko & Toivo, Raisa Maria, Challenging the Paradigm of Witch-Hunt Historiography. In, Nenonen &Toivo: Writing Witch Hunt Histories. Brill 2013.
- Toivo, Raisa Maria, Gender, Sex and Cultures of Trouble in Witchcraft Studies: European Historiography with Special Reference to Finland. IN Nenonen&Toivo: Writing Witch Hunt histories. Brill 2013.
- Toivo,Raisa Maria, Violence between parents and children: Courts of Law in early modern Finland. The History of the Family 18,2013.
- Toivo, Raisa Maria & Muravyeva, Marianna,'Why and How Gender Matters?' In Muravyeva Marianna & Toivo Raisa Maria (ed.) Gender in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe.London: Routledge,2012.
- Toivo, Raisa Maria, Discerning Voices and Values in the Finnish Witch Trials Records. Studia Neophilologica 2012 (Suppl. 1), 2012, 143--?155.
- Toivo, Raisa, 'Male Witches and Masculinity in early modern Finnish witchcraft trials'. In Muravyeva Marianna & Toivo Raisa Maria (ed.) Gender in late medieval and early modern Europe. London: Routledge, 2012.
- Katajala-Peltomaa, Sari & Toivo, Raisa Maria: Tila ja hoivan kaytanteet keskiajalla ja uuden ajan alussa. Historiallinen aikakauskirja 1/2010.
- Toivo, Raisa Maria: "Women at stake". Interpretations of women's roles in witchcraft and witch hunts from the early 20th century to the present. ARV Nordic Yearbook of Folklore 2006. pp. 187-205.
- Toivo, Raisa Maria: Witch-Craze as Holocaust. In: Davies, Owen & Barry, Jonathan (eds.): Witchcraft historiography. Palgrave 2007. pp.90-107.
- Toivo, Raisa Maria: Usko arjessa ja pyhassakin. In: Haggman, Kai & Makinen, Anssi (eds.): Suomalaisen arjen historia I. WSOY 2006. pp. 175-191. [Faith and religion in daily life]
- Toivo, Raisa Maria: Marking (dis)order: Witchcraft and the symbolics of hierarchy in late seventeenth and early eighteenth-century Finland. In: Davies, Owen & Blecourt, Willem de: Beyond the Witch Trials. Manchester University Press 2004.pp.9-25.
- Toivo Raisa Maria: "Naiset Roviolla." Nykytulkinnat naisten osuudesta noituudessa ja noitavainoissa. In: Katajala-Peltomaa, Sari & Toivo, - Raisa Maria: Paholainen, noituus ja magia - Kristinuskon kaantopuoli. Pahuuden kuvasto vanhassa maailmassa. Tietolipas 203. Suomen Kirjallisuuden Seura 2004. pp.187-243.

Source: http://www.uta.fi/yky/en/studies/disciplines/history/staff/person.html?id=37&lang=en