8 Unusual Punishments Inflicted on Women Throughout History

Throughout history, women have faced punishment that has ranged from mild to extreme. History maintained more rigid rules than we might recognize today for women’s behavior and roles, and a step out of line might call for a cruel punishment to remind women of their positions in society.

Women accused of witchcraft threatened the orderliness of Christian societies, prostitutes or adulterers threatened the sanctity of marriage, and a woman deemed too loud might just be heard more than a man. Though many of the reasons for gendered punishment remained consistent—witchcraft, promiscuity, general unruly conduct—the instruments of punishment and torture throughout history varied. 

Scold’s Bridle

Though scolding today may seem to be punishment enough, in 16th- and 17th-century England and Scotland a scold was a woman who disrupted the quiet of her neighborhood with gossip and slander. To tame the scold, an instrument of punishment was born. The scold’s bridle, also sometimes referred to as branks, was a punishment for women deemed too loud or rambunctious for societal norms. The scold’s bridle was as painful as it was humiliating.

A masklike device often outfitted with horns and a mask with unsettling features, the scold’s bridle forced its wearer to have a sharp metal gag that would hold the tongue, literally silencing the wearer’s voice.

Shrew’s Fiddle

The term shrew gained popularity in 16th- and 17th-century England, even loaning its name to William Shakespeare’s play The Taming of the Shrew. A shrew, not unlike a scold, was a boisterous and dominating woman who would not relegate herself to the roles society assigned to her. 

In medieval Germany and Austria, if a shrew dared to fall out of line, she might be met with the shrew’s fiddle. Though like a fiddle in its shape, the shrew’s fiddle’s resemblance to the vibrant-sounding instrument stopped there. With a large opening for the neck and two smaller openings for the wrists, the shrew’s fiddle locked its wearer’s head in place and restrained and immobilized her arms, which were essentially handcuffed in front of her face.

Different variations of the shrew’s fiddle, not necessarily reserved for women, have been attested in Denmark, Japan, and Iran, and a Roman version was found in Germany.