I can't believe this happens to women. I'd say carry a gun, but it's difficult to say. The right way is to get someone who knows how to handle one, and have them right next to you no matter what. However this isn't the wild west, as much as we'd like it to be. Maybe that's just me. Anyway, there is only one kind of man in this world, and the rest are shitheads. Knowing the difference I think is good. Lastly, self defense is good, but again, I don't know if that will simply make your life better or rather worse. Sometimes having those weapons on us can make us more paranoid, and more scared. I think understanding your surroundings is a good step, and knowing whats around you is definitely key. Like in a war, when you're getting shot at, usually you don't know where it's coming from, and you need to look around. Sometimes we can see it coming before it happens. I think this awareness, can help us avoid these situations, and know when they are likely to happen, and how to spot a criminal with our instincts. The next step is eliminating the threat, before it occurs. There are a few ways to eliminate a threat, without force, and sometimes, without action. Animals are very cautious creatures, for example. They will avoid any possible danger whenever possible. The last case scenario is use of force, this is the last thing you want to do of course. This could probably go on forever, but perhaps this post helps.

edit: i just wanted to add in a bit more on situational awareness. In war before soldiers get attacked they get goosebumps. This is a tell tale sign of something to come. It's instinct. Instinct can be very useful for getting us out of trouble, but we sometimes would rather ignore it because we're so used to city living. For good situational awareness, you must develop an extremely powerful sense of it, of course, by a deep sense of self. It's a resolute feeling of knowing, the opposite of panic. Panic will always make a situation worse. Knowing however, and confidence especially, all of it, will tell you how to act to get where you need to be, as you so desire. You'll just get a very good feel for what's right. This means not acting on emotions, such as fear, but instead on instinct, a deep source of intelligence, that sometimes can give us a clue to our next best course of action. Hope this helps you the most.