Recently learned this. Back in the day, women brewers would make beer in big cauldrons at the market place, wear big pointy hats so the customers could spot them easily, and had cats to chase away the mice that ate the raw materials. When monasteries started brewing beer they suddenly discovered that the women who were their competition were also WITCHES!!!
A bit searching confirms this. Turns out brewing beer was considered women’s work originally, something done between taking care of the kids and making dinner.
Women were in general accused of being a witch because they did most of the child care, sick care and other jobs concerning people. If somebody died, and lots of people died of disease, bad hygiene and so on, they sometime blamed the nanny or nurse and called her a witch that cursed them. Men usually worked with inanimate things or animals where chances of being called a witch were much lower.