women empowerment self defence

Women's Empowerment Self Defense: Gender and Human Rights

February 21, 2019

Most traditional forms of self-defense were developed by men, for male bodies. They address the type of violence that is typically perpetrated by men against other men, such as hand-to-hand combat and violent crime.

The vast majority of sexual assault is perpetrated by someone who is known to the victim. Martial arts may give a woman excellent physical techniques, but they do not give her the skills to fend off an assault by someone she knows and cares about, and may not want to hurt. Martial arts may recognize that violence begins long before a hand is laid on the victim, but do not give women skills to identify and prevent it before it starts.

Empowerment Self-Defense fills this void with verbal and mental skills for violence prevention and de-escalation, including assertive body language, boundary setting, and the making of informed choices to assess and possibly avoid violent situations. It also provides physical skills that are adapted specifically for sexual attacks, harnessing the strengths of women’s bodies and psyches and setting them against the weaknesses of the bodies and minds of assailants.

For more such events, look through the Curating the Conscious page.