Agency
Participants retain control over their involvement, choices and level of physical participation.
The Women's Self Defence Network framework
Notice. Respond. Protect. Recover.
A practical structure for recognising concerns, acting while choices remain, protecting yourself when safety is immediately threatened, and finding support afterwards.
Why a framework matters
Personal safety is a sequence of decisions, not a collection of fighting techniques.
Situations differ. People differ. Available choices can change quickly. The framework gives participants a simple way to organise information and decide what may help at each stage.
The stages are not rigid steps. A person may move between them, skip a stage or choose not to act. Freezing, complying, leaving, seeking help and physically resisting can all be survival responses. The outcome never determines whether someone's choice was valid.
01
Notice
Recognise change before urgency removes options.
What it means
Notice is calm awareness of people, place, behaviour and change. It is not constant vigilance or treating every stranger as a threat. Participants learn to recognise when something feels inconsistent, intrusive, isolating or increasingly difficult to leave.
What participants practise
- Establishing a normal baseline for a place or interaction
- Noticing changes in distance, position, tone, persistence and access to exits
- Taking discomfort seriously without needing to prove malicious intent
- Identifying support, exits and safer locations early
Useful outcome: “I noticed something changed, and I gave myself permission to act early.”
02
Respond
Use the least forceful workable option while choices remain.
What it means
Respond is about agency. Depending on the situation, a useful response may be leaving, changing position, joining other people, calling for help, setting a verbal boundary, refusing engagement or drawing attention.
What participants practise
- Short, direct boundary statements without unnecessary explanation
- Using posture, distance and movement to support words
- Repeating a boundary when someone tests or negotiates it
- Moving toward people, light, access, assistance or an exit
Useful outcome: “I can make a clear decision and communicate it without waiting for permission.”
03
Protect
Protect vital areas, create an opportunity and move toward safety.
What it means
Protect begins when immediate safety is threatened and earlier options are unavailable or have failed. The purpose is not to win a fight. It is to reduce harm, regain space, disengage and escape when possible.
What participants practise
- Recognising startle and freeze responses without shame
- Protective posture, balance and movement under manageable pressure
- Simple actions for protecting the head and maintaining breathing space
- Creating separation, disengaging and moving toward help
Useful outcome: “My goal is safety and escape, not proving that I can fight.”
04
Recover
Reach safety, seek support and restore choice.
What it means
Recovery begins with immediate safety and can continue long after an event. Needs differ. A survivor-centred response protects dignity, privacy and choice rather than imposing a single “correct” pathway.
What participants consider
- Moving to a safer place and contacting trusted support
- Emergency, medical, workplace or specialist services where appropriate
- Recording information or preserving options without pressure to report
- Recognising that common stress responses are not personal failure
Useful outcome: “I know that support exists and that the next decision remains mine.”
Principles across every stage
How the framework is taught matters as much as what is taught.
Consent
Touch, partnering and scenarios are explained first and require active agreement. Observation is always a valid option.
Adaptability
Strategies must account for ability, age, culture, environment, relationship context and available support.
Proportion
The objective is the least harmful workable route to safety, not escalation or punishment.
No victim blaming
Responsibility remains with the person choosing coercion or violence, regardless of how another person responded.
Societal responsibility
Individual education must sit beside prevention, accountable leadership, safer systems and effective support.
What a workshop can achieve
Realistic learning outcomes.
- Explain the four stages in plain language
- Identify earlier opportunities for movement, boundaries or help
- Use a concise verbal boundary with supporting posture
- Demonstrate basic protective movement at an appropriate intensity
- Describe immediate safety and support options after an incident
- Understand the limits of short-course training and the value of continued practice
Evidence and honest limits
Informed by research, without overstating what has been proven.
Research on empowerment-based self-defence and sexual-assault resistance education reports promising reductions in victimisation and improvements in confidence, boundaries and agency. Results depend on program design, duration, population and delivery quality. Evidence for a particular program does not automatically validate every short self-defence workshop.
Notice. Respond. Protect. Recover. is the Women's Self Defence Network teaching structure. It has not been independently tested as a clinical or violence-prevention intervention. We use it to organise practical education and evaluate participant learning, not to promise prevention.
Important: Workshops do not replace emergency services, specialist domestic and sexual violence services, legal advice, medical care, workplace safeguarding or broader action to prevent violence.
Selected references
- Hollander, J.A. (2018) ‘Women’s self-defense and sexual assault resistance: The state of the field’, Sociology Compass, 12(8), e12597. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/soc4.12597
- Senn, C.Y. et al. (2015) ‘Efficacy of a sexual assault resistance program for university women’, New England Journal of Medicine, 372, pp. 2326-2335. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMsa1411131
- Spotlight Initiative (n.d.) ‘Design a survivor-centred programme’. Available at: https://www.spotlightinitiative.org/design-survivor-centred-programme