Why Good Intentions in Women’s Self-Defence Training Can Backfire

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?

Why Self-Defence for Women Is More Than Just Learning Physical Tricks

Most people, including many well-meaning HR teams, assume that self-defence training is simply about learning a collection of physical techniques. A wrist release here, a palm strike there, maybe a knee to the groin. And following that logic, they conclude that a female instructor would be better suited to teach women because she “understands the female body” or “makes women more comfortable.”

This thinking, while understandable, reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of what real self-defence actually involves.

The Problem with Reaction-Based Self-Defence Tricks

The vast majority of self-defence classes, regardless of the instructor’s gender, focus almost entirely on reaction-based tactics. These are techniques that activate only after a crime has already begun. A man has already grabbed you. A man has already pinned you. A man has already initiated violence. And now you are expected to execute a technique you practised in a calm classroom, against a person who is bigger, stronger, heavier, fuelled by adrenaline, and fully committed to harming you.

Consider the reality of size and strength disparity. The average man has 40 to 60 percent more upper body strength than the average woman. He is typically taller, heavier, and has greater grip strength. Once a physical altercation has begun and the attacker has positional advantage, relying solely on reaction-based tricks becomes an extraordinarily difficult path to survival.

This is not a statement about women’s capability. It is a statement about physics and physiology. And any honest self-defence system must account for it rather than pretend it does not exist.

Crime Is Planned, Not Random

Here is what most self-defence programmes fail to teach: crime is overwhelmingly premeditated. A criminal does not stumble into an attack. He selects a target. He chooses an environment. He picks a time. He may carry weapons. He may have accomplices. He has rehearsed the scenario mentally, sometimes physically. He controls the ambience, the method, the tools, and the exit strategy.

Given this reality, an instructor’s knowledge of crime itself must extend far beyond martial arts techniques or self-defence tricks. The instructor must understand criminal psychology, predatory behaviour patterns, pre-crime indicators, environmental risk factors, and the decision-making processes that criminals use to select and approach victims. This is specialised knowledge that has nothing to do with the instructor’s gender and everything to do with their depth of study, field experience, and professional training.

The Power to Women Corporate Self-Defence Workshop: Beyond Tricks, Into Science

This is precisely why the Power to Women Corporate Self-Defence Workshop was designed differently from the ground up. It is not a collection of physical tricks taught by any available martial artist. It is a scientifically structured programme built on the convergence of two critical disciplines: the Israeli military Krav Maga self-defence system and over 21 psychological skills drawn from behavioural science, crisis psychology, and criminal profiling.

The programme is engineered around four pillars that go far beyond physical response: Prevent crime before it begins, Avoid dangerous situations through awareness and positioning, Diffuse threats through verbal and psychological tools, and Escape when physical confrontation becomes unavoidable. Physical technique is only the last layer, not the first.

Here is a glimpse of the psychological and tactical skill systems integrated into the workshop:

• Pro-Active Combat Science teaches women to seize initiative and control encounters rather than waiting to be acted upon.
• Guerrilla Hit and Run Deception repurposes the very strategies predators rely on and turns them into tools for the defender.
• Neuro-Behavioral Crisis Management trains the brain to function under threat rather than shut down in terror.
• Warrior Mindset Conditioning builds the psychological architecture that separates those who survive from those who become victims.
• Fear Counterinsurgency converts raw panic into structured tactical advantage during a crisis.
• Pro-Failure Conversion Technique transforms every error during training into actionable learning that strengthens future response.
• Critical Decision Life Safety Skills develops the ability to choose correctly when a moment of hesitation could mean irreversible harm.
• Psychological Anti-Stress Conditioning builds calm under chaos through deliberate, repeatable training protocols.
• Dynamic Scenario Analysis Strategy sharpens the ability to interpret rapidly changing dangers in real-time environments.
• Pre-Conflict Situational Awareness trains women to identify danger long before it fully materialises.
• Threat Perception Development cultivates the instinct to sense predatory intent before any weapon is visible.
• Post-Battle Quick Response prepares women for the critical half-minute after violence that often determines whether they survive or suffer further harm.
• Stealth and Evasive Tactics teaches the art of prevailing in confrontations that never need to happen.
• Active Warfare Emotional Balance sustains mental clarity even when adrenaline overwhelms the nervous system.
• Verbal Modulation Instructions develops the voice as a precise tool for de-escalation and command.
• Violence De-Escalation Techniques provides frameworks for ending threats before any physical contact occurs.
• Crime Radar Deterrence Manoeuvre trains women to project signals that make predators choose a different target entirely.
• Criminal Profiling and Crime Psychology equips women with an understanding of how an attacker thinks, decides, and selects victims.
• Pain Compliance and Pressure Methodology uses anatomical knowledge to generate maximum effect when physical strength is insufficient.
• Emergency Risk Analysis and Management develops the capacity for life-saving decisions made in fractions of a second.
• Decrypting Pre-Crime Sequence teaches women to recognise the subtle one-to-three-second warning signs that precede every attack.

This level of depth requires an instructor who has spent decades studying crime, psychology, military combat systems, and human behaviour under extreme stress. It is not a curriculum that any martial artist, male or female, can deliver simply because they hold a black belt. The question should never be “Is the instructor male or female?” The question should be “Does this instructor possess the knowledge, the experience, and the scientific framework to genuinely prepare women for the realities of crime?”

Real Empowerment vs. Comfortable Limitations in Women’s Safety Training

There is an important difference between making someone comfortable and making someone stronger. Both matter. But they are not the same thing. And sometimes, they pull in opposite directions.

Comfort says: let us remove anything that might cause unease.

Empowerment says: let us build the capacity to handle unease.

In everyday life, comfort is usually the right choice. But in self-defense training, which exists specifically to prepare women for dangerous situations, over-prioritising comfort can actually undermine the entire purpose of the training.

Consider a real-world example. A woman facing domestic violence does not have the option of choosing a comfortable aggressor. She has to deal with a violent person, usually a man, every single day. She has to find the courage to speak, to act, to protect herself and possibly her children. If her self-defense training was designed to shield her from any male presence, how has it prepared her for this reality?

“If a woman cannot even engage with a respectful, professional male instructor in a safe training room, how do we expect her to confront a violent, disrespectful man in a dark alley or inside her own home? Comfort is not the goal. Capability is.”

– Specialist Franklin Joseph

Legal Risks of Demanding a Female-Only Self-Defence Instructor for Corporate Workshops

Beyond the philosophical argument, there is a legal dimension that is worth being aware of. I share this not to create anxiety but to help corporates make fully informed decisions.

How Gender-Based Instructor Requirements Violate Workplace Discrimination Laws

When a company issues a requirement that says “only female instructors,” it is effectively excluding a professional from a job based solely on gender. This is the textbook definition of gender-based discrimination.

• Under Articles 14, 15, and 16 of the Indian Constitution, this kind of discrimination is constitutionally questionable.
• Under Section 5 of the Equal Remuneration Act and Section 3 of the Code on Wages, gender-based discrimination in recruitment and engagement is prohibited.
• Under BFOQ (Bona Fide Occupational Qualification) standards, gender can only be a job requirement when it is genuinely essential to the work. Teaching self-defense does not meet this threshold.
• The POSH Act does not require a gender-specific trainer. It focuses on content and outcomes.
• Most corporate DEI policies explicitly prohibit gender-based discrimination in hiring and vendor engagement.

International Legal and ESG Frameworks That Prohibit Gender-Based Vendor Selection

• ILO Convention No. 111 on discrimination in employment, ratified by India.
• CEDAW on eliminating gender stereotyping, ratified by India.
• UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which call on businesses to respect human rights including non-discrimination.
• ESG reporting standards, where the Social component includes equal opportunity and non-discriminatory practices in all business operations including procurement.
• Companies Act, 2013 and SEBI guidelines on corporate governance, which emphasise fairness and non-discrimination.

For companies operating internationally or those with global clients, Title VII of the U.S. Civil Rights Act, 1964 also prohibits gender-based employment discrimination, with only very narrow BFOQ exceptions that do not include instruction or training services.

“No one would accept a job posting that says ‘Only men may apply’ for a training role. So why do we accept the reverse? Discrimination is discrimination, no matter which direction it flows. That is the first lesson of genuine equality.”

– Specialist Franklin Joseph

What Criminal Psychology Reveals About Effective Self-Defence Training for Women

Here is something that I wish more people understood about crime. Criminals do not care about any of the things we keep focusing on.

A criminal targeting a woman does not care what she is wearing. He does not care if she took a kickboxing class last month. And he certainly does not care whether her self-defense instructor was male or female.

What a criminal does care about is this: Does she look aware? Does she appear confident? Will she resist? Will she freeze? Does she seem like someone who knows what to do, or someone who will be paralysed by fear and confusion?

These are the factors that determine outcomes in real crime situations. And the training that addresses these factors requires mastery over the full spectrum of tactical and psychological preparedness. It demands an instructor who understands how to train women to dictate the terms of a confrontation rather than merely react to one. It requires someone who can teach the brain to function under threat rather than collapse into panic. It requires frameworks for detecting predatory patterns before any weapon is drawn, for reading the subtle shifts in an environment that signal danger is forming, and for making life-preserving decisions in the fraction of a second before hesitation becomes harm.

This depth of instruction is not dependent on the gender of the instructor. It is dependent on the instructor’s knowledge, experience, and ability to communicate effectively.

TEDx Talk: Specialist Franklin Joseph on the Science Behind Women’s Self-Defence

Specialist Franklin Joseph is also a TEDx Speaker, where he addressed the critical gaps in how society approaches women’s safety and self-defence training. In his TEDx talk, he broke down why conventional approaches to women’s safety often fail and how a system built on the convergence of Israeli military Krav Maga self-defence and over 21 psychological skill frameworks can transform women from potential targets into individuals who prevent, avoid, diffuse, and escape crime before it escalates. The principles he shared on that TEDx stage form the very foundation of the Power to Women Corporate Self-Defence Workshop, making it clear that genuine women’s safety is a science, not a set of rehearsed tricks.

Watch the TEDx Talk here: Specialist Franklin Joseph TEDx Talk on Women’s Self-Defence

What International Women’s Day Should Really Mean for Corporate Self-Defence Programs

International Women’s Day is about celebrating the strength of women and advocating for their equal treatment. Here is what that looks like in the context of self-defense training.

It means trusting women to learn from the best available expert, regardless of that expert’s gender.

It means designing training that builds real-world capability, not just classroom comfort.

It means acknowledging that women are strong enough to engage with challenging material, challenging instructors, and challenging scenarios.

It means moving beyond the outdated idea that women need to be shielded and instead embracing the truth that women need to be equipped.

“Empowering women is about acknowledging their strength, their resilience, their intelligence. It is not about wrapping them in layers of protection that they did not ask for and do not need. When we assume women are too fragile to learn from a male instructor, we are not protecting them. We are underestimating them.”

– Specialist Franklin Joseph

Questions Every HR Team Should Ask Before Booking a Women’s Self-Defence Workshop

This Women’s Day, before you send out that email asking for a female self-defense instructor, pause for just a moment. Ask yourself these questions.

Would I specify the gender of a trainer for any other subject? Leadership? Communication? First aid?

Does my company’s DEI policy allow me to exclude someone from a job based on gender?

Am I choosing based on what will genuinely help my employees, or based on an assumption I have not tested?

Am I empowering the women in my company, or am I, with the best of intentions, placing limits on what I think they can handle?

Does the instructor understand criminal psychology, pre-crime indicators, and the full spectrum of tactical and psychological preparedness, or are they simply teaching physical tricks?

Is the programme designed to help women prevent, avoid, diffuse, and escape crime, or does it only activate after violence has already started?

The answers to these questions will guide you to the right decision. And the right decision will always be the one that treats women as the capable, strong, resilient people they are.

“Do not celebrate a woman’s strength in the morning and doubt her resilience in the afternoon. She does not need a comfortable instructor. She needs an effective one. Give her the tools to face the real world, and watch what she does with them.”

– Specialist Franklin Joseph