My husband is far more of a softie than I am.  Because he is tall, black and muscular people tend to be polite around him, because he is physically intimidating, even though he is a real pussy cat.  

I, on the other hand, learned that there are two things a small, physically weak female of the species can do.  The first is to be really really social and only go out in groups of other girls, which is safety in numbers.  

Since that option was closed to me, I instead went with option two, which is a female version of the classic "small man's push", which is to be wary of everybody and if forced to it, able to fight dirty.  I learned early that if push comes to shove, make sure you shove back HARD.  It got me a reputation of being crazy at school and a bit dangerous.  But at least I survived school.  

Alison