Self-Defense Tools For Women: The Ultimate Beginners Guide!

Are you looking for self-defense tools for women and wondering where to start?

I get it. With so many choices available online, what is really going to serve you in the end?

I started my adulthood as a teenage runaway on the streets of Downtown San Diego in Southern California. As a small-frame girl, I might add. Having had to fight off, outwit, and outrun more than my share of creeps over the years, I’ve learned various ways to keep myself safe from harm.

If you’re not sure where to begin looking for reliable self-defense tools for ladies, I’ve got you.

This post is all about self-defense tools for women.

Self-Defense Tools For Women

If you want stats on why self-defense tools are even necessary, see my post, Personal Safety Devices For College Students.

Or turn on any news channel.

But if you just want to get straight to it, the 7 most effective self-defense items for women are (and some may surprise you):

1. SITUATIONAL AWARENESS is the most effective tool for self-defense. This is first and foremost, for everyone. 
2. FLASHLIGHT: the understated flashlight has multiple benefits and is an important self-defense tool. 
3. STUN GUN: even better than a simple flashlight, a stun device is a solid non-deadly way to temporarily disable an attacker long enough to get away. As in “Stun and Run.”
4. PEPPER SPRAY is another non-lethal way to buy some time to get away. You can get these now that leave behind a dye that can be seen under a UV light and used to identify the attacker.
5. PERSONAL SAFETY ALARM: from a simple whistle to wearable personal safety devices, there is no better way to draw attention towards you to summon help, for any emergency.
6. SELF-DEFENSE STRIKING TOOL: these come in a variety of packages, from cat keychains to tactical pens to the baseball bat in the corner of the bedroom. If you’re fighting someone off, everything is fair game.
7. A legally owned FIREARM, especially for ladies living alone. Obviously, this is a matter of preference. But we’re talking about self-defense for women right now. What has more stopping power from a greater distance?

Self-Defense Weapons For Women

Situational Awareness

Personal safety all starts with situational awareness. Chances are, you have heard this term. You might have also heard about the 4 Levels of Situational Awareness that Could Save Your Life (if not, click here to learn more).

In short, paying attention to your surroundings is integral to noticing that you have a problem to begin with. This will hopefully allow you enough time to high-tail it to a safer situation before you even need to employ any other self-defense weapons.

Flashlight

A flashlight has been an everyday carry item for me since I became a nurse, back when spiral perms were still in. And well before I realized how often I’d actually reach for it throughout the course of a day. Every. Single. Day.

(Image: Personal everyday flashlight and slightly larger backup flashlight)

If you can’t fathom how such an unassuming flashlight is at the top of the list of self-defense weapons for women, then check out The Modern Defender’s video on how to use a flashlight for self-defense and victim prevention. You’ll never leave home without one again:

• Flashlights can temporarily blind and disorient would-be attackers. Military and police have been doing this for years.
• Flashlights should be used in all low-light situations, such as parking lots, building garages, and in-between classes on school campuses. Basically, everywhere you need to see and would like to be seen.  
• Criminals are looking for easy targets so they don’t get caught or hurt in the process. Women walking around with their flashlights lighting up the parking lot are aware of their surroundings. They’re also making that fact clear to anyone watching.

Stun Gun 

A “stun gun,” also called a stun device, is a non-lethal device used to deliver electrical currents to momentarily immobilize would-be attackers.

Most stun guns are also flashlights too, making them duel-purpose stun gun flashlights. This is convenient, because the more you have to hold, the less use you have of your hands if they’re needed to defend yourself.

There are a lot of products to choose from but if you are shopping online, there are a few things to keep in mind:

• Consider the safety features, such as whether or not there is a “disable pin” –  this makes the stun gun unusable if it were to get taken away. 
• Is there any Customer Support or product training available to you?
• What kind of warranty comes with your stun gun? 

(Image: Damsel In Defense’s Stun Device & Pepper Spray – BUY Here) 

I purchase and gift all personal protection devices through Damsel In Defense (Click here to See) for many reasons:

• All Damsel In Defense’s STUN DEVICES come with disabling pins so an attacker cannot use the stun gun against you if it’s taken.
• Damsel In Defense Pepper Sprays are the hottest available: 1.45% Major Capsaicinoids (MC) and 2 million Scoville Heat Units (SHU). And they all come with a UV dye that police can see under a black light. 
• All Damsel In Defense’s STUN DEVICES & PEPER SPRAYS come with a Lifetime Warranty.
• If you use or lose your personal safety device defending yourself, it’s replaced for free with proof of a police report.
• All Damsel products come with Customer Support and access to a “Damsel Pro”.
• They have a worthwhile mission that I believe in and am a part of. 😃 Click Here to Learn More.

(Images: My personal key ring set-up with a stun device and pepper spray)

1. “Little Ringer” Stun Device is held with the black cord of the disable pin around the wrist. 
2. Disable pin is seated inside the stun gun next to the charging port. Notice how the key ring on the pepper spray is looped through the ring on the disable pin (see image #3 for why). 
3. If the stun gun is taken away, the pin pulls out of the bottom and disables the device so it can’t be used by the attacker. But I still have pepper spray dangling around my wrist!

Stun Gun vs Taser

The main difference between stun guns and tasers is the distance in which they are used. Both devices deliver electrical current into muscles in order to debilitate an assailant.

Stun guns are handheld devices that deliver electrical shocks when they come into direct contact with an attacker. These are effective pain compliance tools and can help incapacitate someone long enough for you to get away or out of a violent grip. 

Tasers are also handheld devices but they use cartridges that shoot harpoon-like darts (up to 10-12 feet) toward an attacker. Once they penetrate the skin, the probes deliver the electrical current through the thin wires coming from inside the cartridges. 

(Images: Difference between a Stun Gun & Taser)

Pepper Spray

Pepper spray is commercially made out of capsicum, a plant species that includes chili peppers. Which is why spraying this in the face of an attacker will cause them pain, blindness, coughing, and choking. These effects are only temporary, though,.. Meaning, you don’t have all day to get away. Spray, then run away. 

(Images: Hardcore Pepper Spray going from a locked position to ready to fire – BUY it here)

1. Damsel In Defense Pepper Sprays have a glow-in-the-dark lever. When locked (image #1 above), it seats into the left side of the pepper spray.
2. Easy unlock with the thumb, whether right or left-handed.
3. The correct grip to deploy the pepper spray, which shoots a stream up to 16 feet. 

Don’t forget to check your expiration dates! I access mine from the bottom of the canister:

(Images: Checking expiration date of pepper spray, careful of others around)

Do you need to order a replacement cartridge for your pepper spray?

Personal Safety Alarm

I used to be a Registered Nurse in a maximum security men’s prison. Part of our uniform, for both the correctional nurses and the correctional officers is a state-issue whistle. These are to be worn at all times in case we need to summon for help. Brilliant.

Personal safety alarms don’t have to be fancy, but they do have to be available to you when the time comes.

The ones from Damsel In Defense are 120 decibels, and simply gorgeous:

(Images: Personal safety alarms from Damsel In Defense, and a state-issued whistle, required for the safety of all correctional staff)

1. Hear A Pin Drop Alarm Keychain 
2. Pearl Of Wisdom Heremergency Necklace
3. Leaf Me Alone Necklace
4. A regular, bought-in-bulk plastic whistle. Nothing fancy.

Striking Tool for Self-Defense

Realistically, anything within your reach can be used as a striking tool for self-defense.

Damsel In Defenses To Whom It May Concern is not only a refillable ink pen, but it sports jagged edges to collect the DNA of would-be assailants (pictured below, pretty in pink):

(Images: Various striking tools I keep – Click Here to See More Car Kit Essentials)

While there is no shortage of effective, even beautiful, striking tools that are sold for self-defense, don’t forget why you might need one to begin with. 

For self-defense.

Remember that maximum security prison I mentioned working at? They have a “No Hostage” policy for their staff (at least in California). Yep. That means the prison staff is on their own if an inmate suddenly goes off. Of course, the officers have massive cans of pepper spray, guns, batons, and whatever else. But only the officers do.

In those instances when you can’t or don’t have all your self-defense goodies on hand you’ll need to improvise. In my case, the only thing I have to defend myself against the convicted killers, gang members, and rapists at work is what I always have at the ready at work: my gel pen. 

What is around you that can be used for self-defense?

Self-Defense Keychain

No list of self-defense tools for women is complete without the self-defense keychain. This “Sock It To Me” keychain comes in a bunch of cool colors, but I fancy the hombre collection:

(Images: Personal Sock-It-To-Me self-defense keychain – BUY it Here!)

Firearm

If you choose to carry a firearm for self-defense, practice is imperative.

Obviously, you do you. I chose to educate and train my children on the safe use of firearms. 

(Images: Practicing & training with my children)

This post was all about self-defense tools for women.