This page addresses frequently asked questions (FAQ) about women’s personal safety, providing concise answers with links to detailed blogs. Each question reflects genuine concerns I’ve encountered over many years of research and conversations. Visit the linked blogs for in-depth strategies to enhance your safety and security and for additional resources.
- How do I manage and survive stalking
Recognise stalking behaviours, document all incidents, and report threats to authorities. Learn practical ways to improve safety, set boundaries, and build a support system by visiting my blog on stalking survival strategies.
- What are the warning signs of an abusive relationship?
Look for signs like controlling behaviour, isolation, or emotional manipulation. Understand these patterns to protect yourself and seek help. Read my blog on recognising abusive relationship red flags for a detailed guide.
- What is personal safety
Personal safety involves recognising risks, trusting your instincts, and taking proactive measures to stay secure. For actionable insights, read my blog on understanding personal safety and its importance.
- How can I stay safe while using online dating?
Stay cautious by researching potential matches, meeting in public places, and limiting personal information sharing. For comprehensive tips, check my blog on online dating safety advice.
- Can I trust my intuition?
Yes, your intuition is a powerful safety tool. Learn how to recognise and act on gut feelings to avoid danger. Explore this concept further in my blog on trusting your instincts for safety.
- What is technology-enabled abuse or cyber-abuse?
It involves using technology to harass, intimidate, or control someone. Learn to recognise these behaviours and protect yourself by reading my blog on combatting cyber-abuse and staying safe online.
- What should I do when I feel threatened and unsafe?
Stay calm, assess your environment, and plan an escape route. Call for help if possible. For practical advice, visit my blog on responding to threats and unsafe situations.
- What are the best personal safety tips for women?
Stay aware, trust your instincts, set boundaries, and prepare self-defence strategies. For a detailed guide, read my blog on essential personal safety tips for women.
- How can I protect myself from domestic abuse and violence?
Understand the dynamics of abuse, build a support network, and access professional help. Read my blog on breaking free from domestic abuse for actionable strategies.
- What are the most important safety tips for female solo travellers?
Research destinations, maintain situational awareness, and keep your valuables secure. For detailed recommendations, visit my blog on solo travel safety for women.
- Are rapists and sexual predators mostly strangers or people we know?
Research and statistics strongly support that rapists are usually not strangers, but individuals known to the victim survivor.
- What are the most common myths about violence against women?
For us to better understand the reality of violence against women, we must highlight the many violence against women myths, as they bolster harmful stereotypes and blame the victim, contributing to barriers in creating meaningful change.
- How do I teach my daughter about safety, consent, and boundaries in relationships?
Parents need to approach conversations about safety, consent and boundaries with a great level of empathy: listen to their daughters without immediate criticism or interruptions.
- What do I need to pack when escaping domestic violence?
In case you are planning to leave/escape an abusive relationship, this blog provides you with a detailed emergency bag checklist.
- How do I teach my daughter about safety, consent, and healthy boundaries?
Discussions of such sensitive topics are not always very easy to start. However, having open and honest conversations about safety, consent, and healthy boundaries in the context of relationships, sex, and general adolescent development can have a profound impact on their safety and long-term happiness.
- What are the best personal safety tips for female students starting colleage or university?
Paying attention to your environmental awareness, trusting your intuition, having a clear understanding what ‘consent’ really means, and utilising personal safety apps are all key to the personal safety of female students, but there is more.
- How do I effectively protect myself from a strangulation attack?
The truth is, real self-defence againts a strangulation attack isn’t about flashy, complex moves that look impressive in a movie. When your life is on the line, effective self-defence demands decisive, often brutal and vicious actions, regardless of how your moral compass may feel about it.
- How do we create safer poublic spaces for women?
Women frequently have to control and change their behaviour, avoiding certain routes, staying away from poorly lit areas, or limiting travel at night, just to protect themselves, thereby compromising their independence and limiting their participation in public life. This article offers clear guidelines and recommendations on how to create safe public spaces for women.
- What is Drug-Facilitated Sexual Abuse and Spiking
Drug-facilitated sexual assault (DFSA) and spiking are some of the most insidious and underreported crimes in modern society. It lurks in the shadows of the night-time economy, striking when victims.
- What is Mishogynistic Extremism and what do we have to do now to reduce its exposure or prevent it from bleeding into society further?
Misogynistic extremism is a multi-headed beast. Defeating it requires precise, bold, cross-sector strategies. Discussions and words of outrage are no longer enough. We need coordinated, enforceable, and preventative actions
- “I am a sex worker. Can you offer me and my colleagues realistic and effectve personal safety advice, specificlly for the type of risks and threats we face?”
My blog titled: “Essential Personal Safety Tips for Sex Workers and the Need for Reform” will offer you some good advice, but for more ind-depth advice I urge you to read my book NEVER A VICTIM.
- What is trauma bonding and how can I overcome it?
In relationships marked by abuse, manipulation, and fear, the emotional ties can paradoxically feel stronger than in safe, healthy relationships. This disturbing phenomenon is known as trauma bonding, a powerful psychological attachment that can keep victims trapped in harmful relationships long after the abuse has begun. Understanding trauma bonding isn’t just important, it’s often a crucial step toward regaining autonomy, freedom, and emotional well-being.
- What is so-called Honour-Based Violence?
Across many parts of the world, so-called ‘honour’-based violence (HBV) remains one of the most chilling and deeply misunderstood forms of gender-based abuse. It is violence committed to protect or defend the so-called “honour” of a family or community. This umbrella term can include forced marriage, coercive control, physical and sexual abuse, threats, and even murder. In most cases, the victims are women and girls who are punished for exercising autonomy, challenging cultural norms, or simply wishing to live freely.
- What is women’s safety – REALLY?
Women’s safety is the right to live free from violence, coercion, and fear; to enjoy autonomy and dignity in every aspect of life; and to move through the world without having to justify, adapt, or limit one’s existence. But please read my comprehensive article, answering your question “What is women’s safety?”
- What countries are the safest for women to travel to, work, or live?
My blog, titled “The Safest Countries for Women in 2025: Where Rights, Respect, and Security Align” offers expert insights and ranks the safest countries for women based on data, and pricese criteria.
- What is sexual grooming and what are the warning signs?
Sexual grooming is one of the most methodical and dangerous tactics used by abusers to manipulate and exploit young women and children. Offline or online, while at school, at university, while travelling, or on a night out.
- What is gender-based violence?
Gender-based violence is one of the most urgent and widespread human rights violations of our time. It’s driven by power, patriarchy, and inequality. And while, of course, anyone can experience it, it is women and girls, across every culture, age group, and socioeconomic background, who suffer the most, simply because they are female.
- What is coercive control?
Subject to countless of reliable and well-informed resources, coercive control is a strategic form of psychological abuse whereby one partner in a relationship gradually assumes control over the other by manipulating, threatening, and restricting them. It is systematic, ongoing, and designed to make a woman dependent, fearful, and powerless.
- What is economic abuse?
Economic abuse, often invisible but deeply destructive, are powerful mechanisms of coercive control in intimate partner violence. These forms of abuse restrict a survivor’s ability to acquire, use, and maintain resources, forcing dependency and undermining autonomy.
- What is intimate partner violence?
Global evidence, data, expert insight, and action to prevent intimate partner violence, one of the world’s most pervasive forms of abuse. Intimate partner violence (IPV) is not a private issue.
- What Is GPS Tagging in Domestic Violence Prevention?
Several countries like Spain, Portugal, France, Australia, and Switzerland have implemented GPS tagging and proximity notification systems that transform how we safeguard women. These aren’t abstract ideas; they’re proven, evidence-led solutions. And they save lives.
- How can Escalation Pattern Analysis (EP) Help Reduce The Risk of Non-Fatal Strangulation (NFS) and Femicide?
What started as something rationalised away as “sexual play” had transformed into a chilling rehearsal for murder. Each act was more violent, more controlling, more dangerous. This is what escalation looks like, and it is why professionals and survivors alike must see non-fatal strangulation (NFS) for what it truly is.
How Can Employers Support Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence and Domestic Abuse?
Workplaces hold enormous potential. They can notice, they can protect, and they can provide stability when everything else is crumbling. The choice for employers is simple: turn away and perpetuate harm or step up and become part of the solution. Please read “How Can Employers Support Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence and Domestic Abuse?“
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The Women’s Safety Institute is part of PPSS Group