If someone does either grab or demand your purse, give it to him; it's not worth risking yourself for whatever's in there! If your purse is large or heavy, you may be able to belt someone with it if you need to, but if you hit someone with your purse, don't be a sissy about it: pack a wallop that will hopefully knock the guy down and preferably out.
Women are often at risk for street crime and sexual assault on a date, partly because muggers don't know how strong and fast women can be, and largely because too many women don't know it either. If you've ever taken a self defense class, you've probably been surprised at just how competently you can defend yourself once you have some encouragement and little bit of training. If you haven't ever taken self defense, try it: even if you never need to use what you learn, you will gain confidence and strength; two things would-be bad guys want to avoid in their victims whenever possible!
Most self defense classes start by teaching students that screaming loudly and running away is often the best device in stopping an attack. Attackers count on the fact that, in the face of an attack, many people are overcome by a weird sense of shame, which makes them quiet and acquiescent. Battered women (and even abused wives) are the ultimate example of people who are attacked and respond with shame and self-blame, so that they don't want anyone to know what's happening to them. Keeping quiet about being abused means that the abuse continues until the woman gains the strength to leave or until her abuser kills her. On the other hand, women who report abuse to the police often stop being victims. On the street among strangers too, people who run and scream get attention, and very often get help.
Self-defense trainers often say that teaching women techniques to kick, grab, punch the testicles or to claw the eyes of an attacker is all very well, but when it push comes to shove, some crime victims freeze and can't use the aggressive fighting techniques covered in their programs. Something in the way women are trained from childhood sometimes prevents us from fighting back as affectively as we can, even when our bodies and our lives are at stake. Overcoming the urge to remain still is a large part of becoming effective at self defense, and part of the information female students receive in personal safety training involves confronting the conflicting emotions we feel when under attack.
Even if you've had self defense training tips in courses or seminars, it helps to have added advantages in the form of self defense products such as a stun gun or pepper spray key chain or defense spray pen. Sometimes just knowing you have a useful weapon in your purse can give you an air of confidence that warns bad guys away. When you're walking alone in the dark or going to your car in an unfamiliar or unsafe place, keeping your hand on your pepper spray (go here to learn more about pepper spray ingredients) is one good tip for crime prevention. Even a hardened attacker can't fight the vicious stinging of a pepper spray, and every woman, young or old, fragile or strong, can gain the benefit of time to run away and scream for help. | 
