Power to Women Corporate Self Defense Workshop

🟣 International Women’s Day 2026 🛡️ International Women’s Day 2026 is about POWER TO WOMEN. The New Syllabus Every Women’s Self-Defence Program Must Include 📅 March 8, 2026  |  🇮🇳 For Every Indian Woman The old syllabus taught women to fight back. The new syllabus must teach women to NEVER be caught off guard — physically, digitally, legally, or psychologically. Presented By Specialist Franklin Joseph Self-Defence Specialist & Founder ⚡ POWER TO WOMEN — Corporate Self-Defence Workshop Empowering Indian women through practical, scenario-based self-defence training designed for real-world threats — from boardrooms to bus stops, from DMs to dark alleys. “Self-defence is not about teaching women to become fighters. It’s about making sure no one ever treats them as easy targets. The moment a woman carries awareness, confidence, and knowledge — she becomes her own bodyguard.” — Specialist Franklin Joseph, Power To Women Workshop The Threat Has Evolved. Has The Training? 🌙 The Old Threat The Dark Alley 📱 The New Threat The DM Inbox 👤 The Old Stalker Following You on the Street 📍 The New Stalker A Tracking App on Your Phone 🚶 The Old Danger A Stranger in the Night ❤️ The New Danger Someone Saved in…

Female Empowerment or Female Fragility? What Your Self-Defense Workshop Choice Says About How You See Women By Specialist Franklin Joseph | Power to Women Corporate Self-Defense Workshop Every Decision Sends a Message Here is something that I have come to understand after decades of working with corporates on women’s safety. Every decision an organisation makes about its women employees sends a message. Sometimes the message is intentional. Sometimes it is not. But the message is always received. When a company invests in leadership development for women, the message is: “We believe in your potential to lead.” When a company promotes equal pay, the message is: “We value your work equally.” When a company provides self-defense training, the message is: “We care about your safety.” But when a company specifies that the self-defense instructor must be female because “women will feel more comfortable,” a different kind of message lands. And it is worth thinking about what that message actually is. The Message Nobody Intended to Send When a company selects a self-defense instructor based on gender rather than expertise, the unspoken message to women employees is this: “We believe you are too fragile to learn from a male professional in a…

Women’s Self-Defense Is Not About Gender. It Is About Surviving Crime. By Specialist Franklin Joseph | Power to Women Corporate Self-Defense Workshop How We Keep Missing the Point For as long as the conversation around women’s safety has existed, we have managed to make it about everything except the one thing it should be about: the crime. We have made it about clothing. About curfews. About what women should and should not do. About martial arts and kickboxing. About the colour of the training room walls. And most recently, about whether the instructor standing at the front of the room is a man or a woman. At every turn, the spotlight has been pointed at something peripheral. Something that feels relevant but, when examined honestly, has no bearing on whether a woman will survive a violent encounter. Meanwhile, the actual crime, the way it works, the psychology behind it, the patterns that make it predictable and therefore preventable, sits quietly in the corner, unexamined and unaddressed. This post is about redirecting the spotlight. About putting it where it belongs. On the crime. Because when we finally focus there, everything else starts to make sense. What a Criminal Sees When He…

Corporate Women’s Self-Defense Workshop: 10 Red Flags That Your Program Is Failing Your Employees By Specialist Franklin Joseph | Power to Women Corporate Self-Defense Workshop The Workshop Looked Great. But Did It Work? The photographs looked wonderful. Women in active poses. Smiling faces. A nicely designed backdrop with the company logo. The HR team shared the pictures on LinkedIn. Everyone commented. Everyone applauded. The workshop was declared a success. But here is a question that rarely gets asked after a corporate self-defense workshop: Did anyone actually become safer? Not did they enjoy themselves. Not did they take good photos. Not did they feel good for an afternoon. Did they become genuinely, measurably more capable of recognising, avoiding, and surviving a real criminal threat? In most cases, the honest answer is no. And the reason is that most corporate self-defense programs are designed around optics rather than outcomes. They look impressive. They feel empowering. But they are built on foundations that do not hold up when real danger arrives. Here are ten red flags that tell you a program is failing your employees, even if everyone smiles for the camera at the end. Red Flag 1: The First Question Was About…

Does the Indian POSH Act Require Female Trainers for Women’s Safety Programs? By Specialist Franklin Joseph | Power to Women Corporate Self-Defense Workshop The Short Answer No. The POSH Act does not require female trainers for women’s safety programs. It does not mention the gender of the trainer at all. Now, let me explain why this matters, why so many companies get it wrong, and what the Act actually does require. What the POSH Act Actually Says About Training The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 is a landmark piece of legislation. It was created to ensure that workplaces are safe for women, that sexual harassment is taken seriously, and that organisations have mechanisms for prevention, redressal, and awareness. Under the Act, employers are required to organise awareness programs and workshops related to workplace safety. This is clearly stated and is a non-negotiable compliance obligation. However, and this is the part that most people miss, the Act specifies what the training should cover and what it should achieve. It does not specify who should deliver it, in terms of gender. The emphasis in the legislation is entirely on: The relevance of the content to…

What Should You Look For When Hiring a Corporate Self-Defense Instructor? By Specialist Franklin Joseph | Power to Women Corporate Self-Defense Workshop The Question That Determines Everything When your company decides to organise a self-defense workshop for women employees, the single most important decision you will make is who conducts it. The instructor determines everything: the quality of the content, the depth of the learning, the lasting impact on participant behaviour, and ultimately, whether your employees are genuinely safer after the workshop or just feel like they are. And yet, in my experience, the selection process at most companies begins and sometimes ends with one question: “Is the instructor female?” That question tells you nothing about training quality. Nothing about content depth. Nothing about the instructor’s understanding of crime. Nothing about whether your employees will walk away with real, usable knowledge or just a pleasant memory and some photographs. This post is a practical guide to what you should actually be asking. Think of it as a hiring checklist, one that focuses on the qualities and qualifications that actually predict whether the training will be effective. Qualification One: Expertise in Crime Psychology This is the single most important qualification, and…

Why Do Corporates Ask for Female Self-Defense Trainers (And Why It Might Be a Mistake)? By Specialist Franklin Joseph | Power to Women Corporate Self-Defense Workshop Understanding the Motivation Let me begin by acknowledging something genuinely. When corporates ask for a female self-defense instructor, they are almost always acting from a place of care. I have interacted with hundreds of HR teams over the years, and the desire behind this request is consistent: they want their women employees to have a positive experience. They want the workshop to feel welcoming. They want women to participate openly without any hesitation. These are good motivations. And I respect them. But motivations and outcomes are two different things. And sometimes, the road paved with good intentions leads to a destination that is quite different from the one intended. This post is about examining where that road actually goes, and whether there is a better route to the same destination. Reason One: The Comfort Assumption The most common reason companies give is comfort. “Women will feel more comfortable with a female instructor.” On the surface, this makes intuitive sense. But let us look deeper. The women in your organisation are professionals. They negotiate with…

Is Requesting a Female Self-Defense Instructor Considered Workplace Discrimination? By Specialist Franklin Joseph | Power to Women Corporate Self-Defense Workshop A Question Most HR Teams Have Never Asked Themselves Here is something interesting about the way corporate decisions are made. If an HR team received a hiring request that said “only male candidates for this role,” alarm bells would ring immediately. The DEI team would be notified. Legal would weigh in. The request would be rejected or significantly revised. But when an HR team sends out a training vendor request that says “we prefer a female instructor for our women’s self-defense workshop,” nobody blinks. It goes out as a routine email. The assumption is that this is a thoughtful, employee-friendly decision. The question is: why does the same type of gender-based specification trigger very different reactions depending on the context? And the follow-up question is: should it? I believe the answer is no. And I think once you look at this issue clearly, you will see why. Understanding What Workplace Discrimination Actually Means Workplace discrimination, in its simplest form, is treating a person differently in a professional context based on a characteristic that has no bearing on their ability to…

Can Companies Legally Require a Female Instructor for Women’s Self-Defense? By Specialist Franklin Joseph | Power to Women Corporate Self-Defense Workshop A Simple Question With a Complicated Answer It starts innocently enough. An HR manager reaches out about a women’s self-defense workshop. The conversation is friendly and productive. Then comes the question: “By the way, is the instructor female? We would prefer a woman for this session.” It is a question I have been hearing more and more often. And I understand where it comes from. There is a genuine desire to make women employees feel comfortable. There is a belief that a female instructor will automatically create a safer and more open learning environment. But behind this well-intentioned preference lies a legal question that most companies have not paused to consider: Can you actually require a specific gender for this job? And if you do, what legal territory are you stepping into? This post is meant to walk through that question thoughtfully. Not to create panic or confrontation, but to give corporate decision-makers the legal awareness they need to make informed choices. Because informed choices are always better choices. Starting With the Constitution The Indian Constitution is the foundation…

Advocate for Equality on IWD and then Practise Gender Discrimination in the Self Defence Training By Specialist Franklin Joseph | Power to Women Corporate Self-Defense Workshop March 8th vs. March 9th International Women’s Day is beautiful. Genuinely. The speeches about equality are moving. The social media campaigns are well-produced. The panel discussions feature accomplished women sharing powerful stories. Companies make public commitments to fairness, inclusion, and breaking down barriers. And then the celebrations end. The banners come down. Normal operations resume. And somewhere in the organisation, an email goes out to a training vendor: “For our upcoming women’s safety workshop, we require a female instructor.” The person writing that email is not trying to discriminate. They are trying to be considerate. But the effect of their action is discrimination. It is the exclusion of a professional from a job based purely on gender. And it stands in direct contradiction to everything the company said on March 8th. This is not about blame. It is about consistency. Equality is not a theme for one day. It is a standard for every day. And if that standard does not apply to how you choose your trainers, it has a gap that needs…

Stop Asking for Female Instructors: A Crime Psychologist’s Perspective on Corporate Safety By Specialist Franklin Joseph | Power to Women Corporate Self-Defense Workshop Three Decades of Watching the Wrong Conversation I have spent decades studying crime. Not martial arts tournaments. Not fitness trends. Crime. How it happens. Why it happens. Who it happens to. And most importantly, what determines whether someone survives it. And over those decades, I have watched the public conversation around women’s safety go through three phases, each one managing to miss the point in its own creative way. First, we blamed the victim. What was she wearing? Why was she out so late? Why did she go there alone? As if a criminal’s decision to commit a crime was determined by a woman’s wardrobe. This phase was cruel, and thankfully, professional spaces have largely moved past it. Then came the martial arts phase. Companies started booking karate instructors and kickboxing trainers for their women’s safety workshops. Women punched pads, learned combinations, posed for photographs, and went home feeling like they had accomplished something. The problem? Martial arts and crime survival have almost nothing in common. Martial arts operates within rules. Crime has no rules. Martial arts…

Why the Best Women’s Self-Defense Instructor Might Actually Be a Man By Specialist Franklin Joseph | Power to Women Corporate Self-Defense Workshop A Title That Should Not Be Controversial Before you react to the headline, I want you to consider something. If I had written “Why the Best Women’s Self-Defense Instructor Might Actually Be a Woman,” nobody would blink. Nobody would question it. Nobody would think it was provocative. The fact that the reverse feels provocative tells us something about the assumptions we carry. And those assumptions are worth examining, especially if we are in the business of making decisions about women’s safety. This post is not about arguing that men are better instructors than women. That would be just as wrong as arguing the opposite. This post is about one simple idea: the best instructor is the best instructor. Gender has nothing to do with it. And when we let gender become the primary filter, we often end up choosing less effective training for the people who need effective training the most. What Actually Makes Someone Good at This Job Self-defense instruction, real self-defense instruction and not just martial arts repackaged with a new name, is a specialised profession.…

The Hidden Bias in Your Corporate Women’s Safety Workshop By Specialist Franklin Joseph | Power to Women Corporate Self-Defense Workshop Bias Does Not Always Look Like Bias When people think of workplace bias, they usually picture something obvious. A sexist comment in a meeting. An unequal pay structure. A promotion denied because of gender. These are the kinds of bias that companies train their teams to recognise and eliminate. But bias has quieter forms too. Forms that look so much like care and consideration that nobody thinks to question them. And one of those forms is hiding in plain sight in how many corporates plan their women’s safety workshops. It sounds like this: “We would prefer a female instructor. Our women employees will feel more comfortable that way.” On the surface, this sounds thoughtful. Below the surface, it contains three hidden biases that are worth examining honestly. Hidden Bias Number One: Women Cannot Learn From Men The assumption that a female instructor is inherently better suited to teach women carries an unspoken belief: that women cannot learn effectively from a male professional. Think about how this assumption would be received in any other context. Would you tell your female employees…

Equality on Stage, Discrimination Behind the Scenes: What Corporate Self-Defense Hiring Gets Wrong About Women’s Day By Specialist Franklin Joseph | Power to Women Corporate Self-Defense Workshop The Stage vs. The Backstage International Women’s Day has become one of the most widely celebrated occasions in the corporate world. Companies host keynote sessions. They share stories of women leaders. They run campaigns with hashtags about breaking barriers, shattering glass ceilings, and choosing equality. On stage, the message is clear: women are equal. Women are capable. Women deserve the same opportunities as men. But behind the scenes, in the procurement emails and vendor selection meetings, a different kind of decision is often being made. A decision that says: “For the women’s self-defense workshop, we need a female instructor only.” This is the gap between what we say and what we do. And I believe it is worth closing. Not with criticism, but with conversation. Why This Matters More Than You Might Think Some might feel that this is a small issue. After all, the company is just trying to make women comfortable. What is the harm? The harm is subtle, but it is real. And it operates on multiple levels. It Reinforces…

International Women’s Day, Ask Yourself: Is Demanding a Female Self-Defense Instructor Empowerment or Gender Bias? By Specialist Franklin Joseph | Power to Women Corporate Self-Defense Workshop Good Intentions, Unexamined Assumptions Let me start with something I genuinely believe. Every corporate HR team that has ever asked me for a female self-defense instructor has done so with good intentions. They care about their women employees. They want them to feel safe and supported. And that care is real. But good intentions, when built on unexamined assumptions, can lead us somewhere we did not mean to go. And the assumption we need to examine here is this: that a woman can only learn self-defense from another woman. Let us sit with that assumption for a moment and ask ourselves where it leads. If we believe a woman cannot handle learning from a male instructor in a safe, supervised, professional environment, what are we really saying about her? Are we empowering her? Or are we, without meaning to, reinforcing the idea that she is too fragile to engage with a man, even in a classroom? Empowerment vs. Comfortable Limitations There is an important difference between making someone comfortable and making someone stronger. Both…

International Women’s Day Celebrates Equality. So Why Does “Female-Only” Self-Defense Hiring Defy POSH, BFOQ, DEI, and the Constitution? By Specialist Franklin Joseph | Power to Women Corporate Self-Defense Workshop The Celebration and the Contradiction Every year on March 8th, corporates across India and the world celebrate International Women’s Day. The speeches are inspiring. The social media posts are beautifully designed. The themes are powerful: Break the Bias. Inspire Inclusion. Accelerate Action. Choose to Challenge. And then, a few weeks later, someone from the same company sends out an email to a self-defense training provider that says: “Please confirm that the instructor will be female. We prefer a woman trainer for our women employees.” I want to be very gentle with this observation, because I know the intention is good. But the contradiction is real, and it is worth talking about. Because International Women’s Day is, at its heart, about equality. And specifying that only a person of a particular gender can perform a job is, by definition, not equality. A Quick Look at What Is Actually Being Violated Let me walk through this carefully. Not to accuse, but to educate. Because I believe that most corporates would correct this immediately…

POSH Act Compliance: Does Your Women’s Safety Trainer Need to Be Female? By Specialist Franklin Joseph | Power to Women Corporate Self-Defense Workshop The Question Every HR Team Should Be Asking If you work in human resources, compliance, or corporate training, you have probably heard this conversation at least once. Someone on the team says, “We need to organise a self-defense workshop for our women employees. Let us make sure we get a female instructor.” The room nods. It sounds thoughtful. It sounds considerate. And no one questions it further. But here is the thing. The POSH Act, which is likely the very reason your company is organising this training, does not actually require the trainer to be female. In fact, if you read the Act carefully, you might find that insisting on a gender-specific instructor could actually work against the spirit of the law your company is trying to follow. This is not about blame or finger-pointing. This is about understanding the law properly so that your compliance efforts are genuinely effective and legally sound. What the POSH Act Actually Says About Training The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 is very clear…

Vendor Procurement Laws: The Hidden Legal Trap of Gender-Specific Hiring By Specialist Franklin Joseph | Power to Women Corporate Self-Defense Workshop The Email That Should Make Legal Teams Pause Somewhere in India right now, a corporate procurement team is drafting an email that reads something like this: “We are looking for a female self-defense instructor for our upcoming women’s safety workshop. Please confirm if you have a female trainer available.” It sounds professional. It sounds considerate. And most people would read that email without a second thought. But here is what that email actually does. It sets a gender-based criterion for a professional engagement. It tells a qualified service provider that their expertise, experience, credentials, and methodology are secondary to their biological sex. And it creates a documented record of a procurement decision based on gender. For companies that pride themselves on fair procurement practices, transparent vendor selection, and compliance with anti-discrimination laws, this is a conversation worth having. How Vendor Procurement and Anti-Discrimination Laws Intersect Most large corporates have detailed procurement policies. These policies typically include provisions about fair evaluation, merit-based selection, transparency, and non-discrimination. Many of these policies explicitly state that vendors and service providers shall be selected…

The DEI Dilemma: When “Safe Spaces” Cross Into Gender Discrimination By Specialist Franklin Joseph | Power to Women Corporate Self-Defense Workshop The Tension Nobody Wants to Acknowledge Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Three words that every modern corporation takes seriously. DEI policies are developed with care, reviewed by legal teams, communicated to all employees, and displayed proudly on company websites and annual reports. And rightly so. These principles represent some of the most important progress workplaces have made in recent decades. But here is a tension that very few people are willing to talk about. What happens when the desire to create a “safe space” for one group of employees leads to a decision that discriminates against a professional based on their gender? What happens when DEI, in practice, contradicts DEI in principle? This is exactly what happens when a company specifies that a self-defense instructor for women must be female. The “Safe Space” That Is Not as Safe as You Think The concept of a safe space has real value. In therapy, in support groups, in certain clinical contexts, creating an environment where people feel psychologically secure is essential for healing and growth. Nobody disputes that. But self-defense training is…

Rethinking Workplace Equality: The Irony of “Female-Only” Instructor Requests By Specialist Franklin Joseph | Power to Women Corporate Self-Defense Workshop An Uncomfortable Irony I have spent decades training women in corporate environments across India. I have worked with companies of all sizes, across all industries, and I have seen the genuine care that organisations put into their women’s safety initiatives. That care is real, and it is something I deeply appreciate. But I have also noticed an irony that has been growing over the past few years, and I think it deserves an honest conversation. The very companies that champion workplace equality, that run campaigns against gender bias, that celebrate breaking stereotypes, and that invest heavily in diversity and inclusion programs are increasingly making one very specific request when it comes to self-defense training: “Can you send a female instructor?” In other words, companies that publicly fight against gender-based discrimination are privately practising it, in the very act of trying to empower women. The Request Decoded Let us unpack what this request actually communicates, even if unintentionally: To the male professional: Your decades of expertise, your specialised knowledge in crime psychology, your proven track record with corporate clients, none of…

How to Hire a Corporate Self-Defense Expert Without Violating Your DEI Policy By Specialist Franklin Joseph | Power to Women Corporate Self-Defense Workshop Your DEI Policy Does Not Stop at the Training Room Door Every year, I see more corporates investing in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. DEI committees are formed. Policies are drafted. Town halls are conducted. And rightly so. These efforts matter. But here is something that often goes unnoticed. The very same companies that have robust DEI policies sometimes send out vendor requirement emails that read something like this: “We are looking for a female self-defense instructor for our women employees.” On the surface, this looks thoughtful. It looks like the company cares about the comfort of its women employees. And I have no doubt that the intention behind it is genuine. But let us take a step back and look at this through the lens of your own DEI policy. Because if your policy says you do not discriminate based on gender in hiring, that principle should extend to how you engage trainers, consultants, and service providers as well. Otherwise, the policy has a blind spot. And blind spots, however well-intentioned, can become liabilities. What the Law…

True Equality in Corporate Training: Evaluating Skills Over the Instructor’s Gender By Specialist Franklin Joseph | Power to Women Corporate Self-Defense Workshop We Have Been Losing Focus for Years Over the last couple of decades, the conversation around women’s safety has gone through several phases. Each phase had good intentions. But looking back honestly, each phase also had a common problem: we kept focusing on the wrong thing. First, the focus was on the victim. What was she wearing? Where was she going? What time was it? The entire conversation revolved around what the woman did or did not do, as if crime was somehow her responsibility. Thankfully, society has largely moved past that narrative. We recognise now that blaming the victim helps no one. Then the focus shifted to physical techniques. Suddenly, every self-defense program became about karate chops, kickboxing combos, and martial arts demonstrations. Women were taught to punch bags and kick pads, and somewhere along the way, everyone started equating “self-defense” with “martial arts.” The problem? Martial arts and self-defense are not the same thing. Martial arts is a sport, a discipline, a lifestyle. Self-defense is about surviving a crime. These are fundamentally different objectives. And now,…

Understanding BFOQ: Is Gender Essential for Teaching Corporate Self-Defense? By Specialist Franklin Joseph | Power to Women Corporate Self-Defense Workshop What Is BFOQ and Why Should Your Company Know About It? BFOQ stands for Bona Fide Occupational Qualification. It is a legal concept that allows an employer to specify a particular gender, religion, or national origin as a requirement for a job, but only when that characteristic is genuinely essential to performing the work. The key word here is “essential.” Not preferred. Not convenient. Not more comfortable. Essential. Under U.S. law, specifically Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, BFOQ exceptions are interpreted very narrowly. Courts have consistently ruled that an employer must demonstrate that the job simply cannot be performed by someone of the excluded gender. The bar is intentionally high because the default legal position is that gender should not be a factor in hiring or procurement. While BFOQ is a concept rooted in American employment law, its underlying logic applies universally. In India, the Constitution (Articles 14, 15, and 16), the Equal Remuneration Act, the Code on Wages 2019, and various corporate governance guidelines all reflect the same principle: gender-based exclusion in professional engagement requires…