The Witches of New York

Though Eleanor, Adelaide, and Beatrice must confront the demon Malphas and his schemes, more often than not, their biggest foe is not supernatural. Rather, McKay deliberately depicts how greater dangers originate in the era’s systemic misogyny. One such example can be found in the psychiatric ward at Blackwell’s Island and how a woman is diagnosed and admitted as a patient. Historically, women could be admitted on the recommendations of their family members and husbands alone, and they were often sent to these wards without their consent (and with little regard for their mental health). Though knowledge about mental health during the Gilded Age was at best rudimentary when it came to diagnosing men, it became an outlet for patriarchal tyranny in the case of women. As Brody’s experience with his mentor, Dr. Mitchell, demonstrates, even experts tend to diminish women in their diagnoses:

[H]e’d witnessed Mitchell chastising them (often quite severely) for “thinking, day-dreaming and fretting, too readily and too much.” He’d diagnosed every woman who had a stray feeling, craving, desire, wish, interest, worry, affection, inkling, suspicion, knowing, predilection or ability, with nervous exhaustion (128).

Women who showed any amount of ambition, concern, interest, or basic personality traits were dismissed and treated under an umbrella diagnosis that failed to take any of their concerns seriously.