why only women victims?

was this ever accounted for?

The only woman I can recall treating Stephen disparagingly was Annie Gould, demanding he redo the fireplace on the spot into its former 'comforting uterine form', or something along those lines. So clearly the writers were trying to get at something gender-driven in Stephen's torment.

It was also interesting that the only person he revealed his anger to, even if only momentarily, was Anna Salter. It didn't save her daughter, though. I'm assuming the old spaniel was female, as well.

In the case of Chis and Louis Cooper, Stephen clearly chose to kill the woman, while sparing the fellow who had humiliated him.

Perhaps Stephen viewed killing the women as the meting out of punishment on all the men who had humiliated & ridiculed him. Some may have been random, but some clearly were not. He didn't run inside Chris' house by mistake.