As a 6’4" goofy-looking white guy, if I have to walk outside late at night I go pants-less. No one bothers me…
I always find it interesting how women, who are on average not as strong as men find little interest in compensating for that fact. I’m amazed how many of my female friends like to ride around in the ghetto on their bikes without packing a weapon.
Is it socialization? Is it just the way women have evolved? Non-violent to a fault.
I speak softly and walk with a large pitbull.
Obviously, she is not with me 24/7. If I’m out walking my neighborhood at night, it’s to walk her, and that’s probably the greatest danger in general, that I might encounter on a daily basis. I usually walk her in the afternoon anyway. I’ve seen many people cross the street to avoid getting too close to us. If she doesn’t want you anywhere near me, you ain’t getting anywhere near me. She’s also the Home Security System.
On the rare occasions I’m out alone after dark, I’m using situational awareness, calm, controlled confidence, and hopefully just some general common sense. Being armed would not prevent an attack; it might only improve my odds of coming out of it unscathed by a little bit. I refuse to live in paranoid fear. I prefer the term cautiously optimistic. If shit happens, though, shit happens. I can probably recover from most anything but death.
When my mum was working nights and making house calls in Chicago in the 40’s, her dad gave her a cosh. Leather, flexible, weighted. It’s a lovely thing, but as a bloke I’d get into a world of trouble if caught carrying it. I think it’s still stored away somewhere.
I don’t really believe having a gun will save me. On the contrary, most men are stronger than me so if they manage to get it off me all I have done is provide them with a weapon. Plus I don’t really believe that 99.9% of people have the cool calm demeanor so vaunted in the movies and stuff. Most people when attacked will not be quick enough on the draw unless they are trained. And judging by the people I see at the range - and I do shoot, I just don’t carry - most of them aren’t trained one little bit.
Of course if you have a gun, it becomes a different story 
Like Anaamika, and setting aside the legal issues with carrying in Chicago, I just don’t think it would help much. I’d be giving the attacker a weapon, if s/he didn’t have one already. Worse, I might miss and hit some kid standing behind him. Honestly, I’d rather literally die than shoot an innocent kid. There’s too much of that in this city already. 
Carry mace when appropriate, and always wear shoes I can run/kick in. I don’t do the key thing per se, but I do make sure I have my car key in hand when I go out to my car.
And like Nava, >=47, therefore invisible. Even better, in winter, I stick my hair up under a stocking cap and wear a parka.
Your female friends don’t carry weapons while riding bikes because they have some sense.
When someone attacks you on the street the advantage doesn’t go to the person with the best weapon, it goes to the person who knows what is about to happen. Which is inevitably the attacker. The element of surprise is significant enough to either render a weapon useless or turn it on the user a lot of the time, so its not surprising women aren’t that keen.
I’m not as pretty as many. So from time to time I add a little tinted lip balm, a little tinted moisturiser, a little mascara. But I don’t make it my sole focus to look as beautiful as possible, admire only the pretty people because I value other things too.
I’m not as smart as many. So I read a bit, try to improve my knowledge in various areas, try to keep learning. But I don’t devote my entire life to the pursuit of knowledge, and look down upon those stupider than I, because I have other interests too.
I’m not as strong as many. So I try to practice situational awareness, be confident and not do things that are high risk with a low pay-off. But I don’t spend all my time learning how to use various weapons, taking steroids and pumping iron, missing out on life in order to avoid all risks and living in fear of those stronger… because I have other priorities.
Like ALL OTHER PEOPLE, (women ARE people you know, not some exotic weaker alien species apart from men), everyone weighs up their environment, their personality, their prejudices, their strengths and weaknesses, their energy, time, disposable income, etc and with all those competing priorities, makes their own choices.
I always find it interesting when someone picks one aspect of life, and mulls over how unmotivated the “others” are in reaching a certain arbitrary standard.
There is a new study out:
Yeah, that’s the other thing, too. I live in NY, which has some pretty strict gun control laws, and my county and town have even stricter ones. If I wanted to carry, concealed or otherwise, I’d have to move. And it’s just not something that’s high on my priority list. I am happy that if someone handed me a gun I wouldn’t stare at it blankly and would know how to check the safety, check the magazine, etc., but I also don’t need to be packing all the time.
My wife has a little knurled aluminum baton on her keychain. It’s maybe 6 inches long and 3/4" in diameter, and looks like a mini-nunchuck. She took some classes where the device can be used to help pry open the grip of someone choking or grabbing her, stab eyes or throat, or be used to swing the rest of the keychain contents as a short-range surprise weapon.
I am more likely to be harassed by a black bear than a human. I carry a small knife and I *always[/] know what’s around me. I also have exceptional hearing. If anyone were to attack me, they would not come out of it unscathed.