Street Smart Safety for Women: Your Guide to Defensive Living

by Joy Farrow, Laura Frombach

In a book written by women for women, Street Smart Safety for Women offers tips on defensive living that will increase readers' reliance on the one thing that can protect them their safety intuition.

Violence against women is a global health issue. The threats women face today are unparalleled and more dangerous than ever before. And, for the first time in history, the toxic cocktail of technology and social media has weaponized misogyny and virtualized violence against women.

There’s an even more serious challenge that faces women today. Social conditioning—the way our systems of family life, education, employment, entertainment and pop culture, spirituality and religion influence us— leaves many of us ill-equipped to deal not only with this escalating surge of attacks, but also the unrelenting prevalence of sexual assault, domestic violence, and scams.

Women have been culturally trained to discount one of their greatest protections – safety intuition. As women, it is so ingrained in us to attend to everyone else, including strangers on the street, before we listen to ourselves, that we have lost touch with our innate ability to often detect dangerous situations. As the result, we are left generally defenseless to recognize predators who manipulate our natural compassion, to our own detriment. This inability to listen to ourselves and be persuasion-proof directly affects our personal safety and data shows that attacks on women continue to escalate daily across the world, inside and outside of the home. Though everyone is talking about how women continue to be less safe, few offer solutions. Women are terrified and they are looking for answers.

In Street Smart Safety for Women , retired Deputy Sheriff Joy Farrow and technologist Laura Frombach, herself a survivor of a violent household, draw on their experiences both personal and professional to provide those answers. Dedicated to educating women in personal safety and showing them a defensive living strategy and trusting in themselves can reduce their probability of becoming a victim of a crime.

Chapter 1 – Design for Defensive Living
Chapter 2 - Technology Terror
Chapter 3 – Can You Recognize a Predator?
Chapter 4 - Persuasion, Manipulation, or More?
Chapter 5 - Dating Diligence
Chapter 6 – What Do Victims of Domestic Abuse Have in Common with Korean War POWs?
Chapter 7 - Financial Security is Key to Your Safety
Chapter 8 – Tips from a Female Cop
Chapter 9 - Shams, Scams and Cons
Chapter 10 - Women and Weapons
Chapter 11 - From Victim to Victor

Genres: Nonfiction

336 pages, Paperback

Published October 3, 2023

Reviews

[J Kromrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Street Smart Safety for Women

Your Guide to Defensive Living
by Joy Farrow; Laura Frombach

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this eARC.

📚 In their insightful and empowering book, "Street Smart Safety for Women", authors Joy Farrow and Laura Frombach provide a comprehensive guide to self-protective skills for women. Released on October 3, 2023, this book addresses safety at home, online, and in the world, equipping readers with practical strategies to enhance their personal security.

Key Themes and Insights

- Defensive Living Design: Farrow and Frombach emphasize the importance of adopting safety-oriented behaviors as part of everyday life. Drawing parallels with defensive driving, they encourage women to cultivate awareness and confidence without allowing fear to dominate their thoughts.

- Psychology of Victimization: The authors delve into the psychology of violence from both the attacker's and victim's perspectives. By understanding common characteristics of predators and aggressors, readers gain valuable insights into self-protection.

- Online Risks and Dating: The book explores the specific risks associated with online communication and dating. From recognizing persuasive tactics to evaluating the appropriateness of weapons, Farrow and Frombach provide practical advice for navigating these modern challenges.

- Financial Security: Financial stability is a key aspect of personal safety. The authors discuss ways to establish and maintain financial security, empowering women to make informed decisions.

- From Victim to Victor: Through personal stories and research, the authors guide readers toward a mindset shift—from vulnerability to empowerment. They emphasize the importance of trusting one's safety intuition and resisting manipulation.

Strengths and Considerations

- Informative and Practical: The book combines personal anecdotes, research, and common sense to offer practical tips. The authors' pithy phrasing makes recommendations easy to assimilate and remember.

- Comprehensive Perspective: Farrow and Frombach address various types of violence women may encounter, including physical, emotional, and financial aspects.

What could be improved:
- Occasional Repetitiveness: While the book covers a wide range of topics, some sections feel repetitive.

- Clarity, by maintaining focus on the core thesis.

- Clued-In Material vs. Out-of-Touch Moments: The book balances relevant explanations (e.g., terms like "love bombing" and "the manosphere") with occasional inaccuracies (e.g., comparing IBM to Apple). Readers may question its authoritative qualifications. Where ARE the editors these days?

Overall
However, "Street Smart Safety for Women" is an informative collection of data and advice, which empowers women to reclaim their safety intuition and navigate the complexities of today's world. Whether you're a seasoned reader or new to self-help literature, this book offers valuable insights for women seeking practical solutions to enhance their security. "Remember: Your car is not a drive-thru! Do not ever roll your car window down because a stranger wants you to." 🚗💪🏼

[Uma The Tigress · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Street Smart Safety for Women: Your Guide to Defensive Living" is the first book of its kind that I have read, and I'm glad that I read it. It is a book written by two astute women, and is dedicated to female empowerment. In reality, women rarely take the time to think about their own safety. We shouldn't wait until a situation reaches "crisis mode" to consider our own well-being. In fact, that level of thinking will most likely place us further in harm's way. As such, it is important that women everywhere should know the basic dos and don'ts when it comes to their safety, security and physical well-being.

Co-authors; Joy Farrow and Laura Frombach, have collaborated in the writing of this amazing guide; which consists of street smart safety tips, techniques, preventative measures, and tactics for women. The authors offer great safety insight, geared towards helping women to improve their situational awareness, and avoiding dangerous situations before they can occur. This book will teach you to tap into your latent, personal, protective instincts and protect (or defend) yourself when the situation arises.

This book is an excellent personal safety resource and it fits the target audience perfectly. In general, it offers a plethora of doable and straightforward strategies that will raise your situational awareness, help you to stand up for yourself, and help you to defend yourself if you're ever in a risky scenario. It is a great tool for developing a personal security program. Each chapter is relevant and offers something relatable. The book's personal touch -- backed by research and the authors' professional experiences -- adds an abundance of credibility to it. On the whole, it is easy to read, relevant and implementable. Every woman should read this book and put it into practice right now!

[Sudipta Nandi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before I start my review, I must mention that I am a bully survivor. I have been bullied in schools, college, and even at my last workplace. But then, I didn't have this book. I was blinded "in entre chien et loup", the French word for Twilight, I learned from Joy. I missed multiple red flags. I considered my bullies' female accomplices as friends. I suppressed my intuition, and sometimes I was fawning. My response or reaction was freezing when they had their perverted fun. I never reported them. I should have. This book enlightens you with situational awareness, fight strategies, and trauma transformation strategies.
It also asks you to empower yourself. With what?

With knowledge, sisters. The knowledge that intuitions are real as they are answers from your subconscious. That subconscious can process eleven million bits/second. The stories of Joy, Laura, Olivia, the ballet-dancing woman, Janice, and Jackie can be any woman's story. Predators play with audacity on your empathy or greed. Bullies play on your female weakness to be sweet or savior.

Do not let them. Read this book. Make your individual defense strategy and boundary clauses. Find your community. Empower with technology. If Elizabeth Holmes can con without any expertise in biomedicine, you can do much better with your tech expertise. Stay safe and aware.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I learned some from this book, I found it to be a little wordy and less of an actual street-smart guide and more of an “here are all the ways the people you know are out to get you” kind of book. I wish that there were some concrete tips in each chapter or at the end of the book, which would have made this a much better resource for people looking for safety tips. While Chapter 9 does address this, it would have been helpful to have more tips throughout the rest of the book that weren’t just focused on physical safety and included some tips for people who may be in emotionally, physically abusive situations or dealing with abuse online. While I learned some good information in this book, I feel like it could have been a lot shorter and that it left out some discussions of aspects of safety for women in situations like sex work, maids/cleaners, trans-women, truckers etc. that would have been helpful to know. The title of the book overall felt misleading from the actual content of the book, though the content was helpful and informative overall. 2.5/3 stars

[Louise Foerster · Rating 5 out of 5]

What happens when a pair of street smart, experienced women get together to share their insights, expertise, and advice with other women? Joy Farrow and Laura Frombach have done just that in their excellent STREET SMARTS SAFETY FOR WOMEN. While I've long prided myself on superior "spide-y sense" and awareness of my surroundings and individuals, I learned a great deal from their candid, well-written, and generous guidance. I will recommend this book to every woman I know, every person now that I think about it--don't be scared, but do be aware. Ultimately, their guide is empowering and practical and extremely useful. I received a copy of this book and these opinions are my own, unbiased thoughts.

[Ashley Raimo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is good; however, not a book I could continue to read. It brought back to many traumatic memories for me and I had to quit reading it. I was honestly a little disappointed that it wasn’t just about street safety. I understand we need online safety but it’s deceiving calling it street smart safety for women then talk about online stuff and porn. I had to quit reading it at the online chapter about the porn. Hopefully this book is good for someone else. I just wasn’t the target audience.

[Monica · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting take on how to stay safe and, most importantly, trust ones own intuition. “Street smart” applies to more than safety outside the home; the authors cover online safety, recognize when one is being manipulated, violence in the home as well as self-defense. It’s a well-written book, not designed to scare (though, TBH, I had no idea of the extent to which women are targeted), but to offer practical advice on how not to be a victim.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

[Belle · Rating 5 out of 5]

By women for women ♀️👊

"..[who] gambled the safety odds of going to the grocery store after dark, juggled the challenges of traveling solo with children, or prayed that the handyman isn’t psycho."

~

"..[who] knows how it feels to be unsafe just because you are a female in this world."

Very well written and researched. The invaluable information is told in an interesting way to easily absorb and stay engaged.

Strength. Power. Unity ♀️👊

[Erin Cartwright · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this would be a guide to street smart safety because that's the title. But it's more about staying safe online which I found deceptive. There were parts that I was interested in and I gleaned some information that was useful but it wasn't what I thought it would be.

[Michele Gorruso · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great info to protect yourself in any situation. I felt the writers expressing real life experiences made me think of ways to utilize their strategies moving forward. I feel prepared (as much as one can) for the unexpected.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Street Smart Safety for Women" was a bit of a disappointment:
there were a lot of repetitions and the topics were dealt with rather superficially in my opinion.
I felt like this lacked actual advice on how to act in certain situations and instead the novel kept reiterating the point that we should develop safety intuition without providing practical advice on how to act.