There is this trendy and widely used term in war/combat/geopolitics lingo: asymmetric warfare. 

In academia of war colleges and military educational entities, they often sling a catch phrase: there are two distinct ways to fight a war or a battle- asymmetric or stupid. 

Let’s apply this to a very specific AND distinct area of self-preservation- self-defense training for women. Asymmetric way to fight would be fighting in a way that is unconventional in its approach, unexpected and unpredictable in its tactics- using different means and methods than those utilized by the opponent. Yet what we see most often is the promotion of fighting stupid- learn and do same punches, kicks, locks as men do, try to be more aggressive, faster and more powerful than what men are. 

“Fight like a girl” most likely would be perceived as inferior to “fighting like a man”- but it doesn’t have to be. While your opponent is more likely than not to have advantages in certain parameters- size, physical strength, muscle mass, possibly experience with physical confrontations- you should not try to match them in these metrics. 

What you should learn is introducing different metrics into the equation. And contrary to what you may think- it isn’t very complex, nor does it require decades of dedicated, intense training to be able to do so. 

Understanding the principles of workspace, posture, and pressure, stimuli overload, and short work will take you in a fundamentally different direction of acquiring actionable self-defense skills, without the need for rote memorization and endless repetition of dozens of rigid techniques, designed to counter very specific actions. 

And while this approach won’t give a small box of nicely packaged, “tried and true” techniques, it will provide you with the ability to adapt in real time to what is occurring in the “now”. Applying principles and basic attributes learned to deal with the threats and take advantage of opportunities in the moment, vs waiting and hoping to see and recognize that specific stimuli to which you have a theoretical solution of a memorized and repeatedly drilled technique-  assuming you can apply the proper prescribed technique at the right time.