It’s virtually always better to fight back, particularly if you are trained in how to fight back appropriately. Women who fight back are injured less often, are more successful in stopping the attack, regardless of what kind of attack it is, and feel better about themselves afterwards.

People who’ve never been in a situation where they wanted to fight often think that they couldn’t fight, but you will find, if you’re faced with a life or death situation, that it’s very easy to fight. But you need to know how to fight back in order for that instinct to be effective. Getting training of the type that AWARE and other organizations suggest can be critical to overcoming that emotional resistance to fighting. See our Resources and Tools and Techniques on our home page.

A tremendous amount. It’s not necessary to take years of training in order to become an effective fighter or in order to develop a personal protection plan that works for you. In a couple of hours or a few days, you can become proficient in a number of different techniques and learn something about how you apply them.