Women are often targeted by attackers because we make a few common mistakes about personal safety that present us as easy crime victim prospects.

1. We tend to be accommodating, to a fault
2. We ignore our gut feelings
3. Automatic trust is common with women

A few things to remember as we get into more detail about the common mistakes we make that put us in danger.

1. Attackers are insecure, have low self-esteem, feel out of control of their own lives and choose to control someone or something else in order to feel powerful again.
2. Attackers look for those who appear weaker than they are (mentally, physically) to attack.
3. Attacks may be verbal, mental, emotional or physical.

Too Accommodating

Women tend to be accommodating because we want people to like us and we enjoy being helpful. Although these traits are not bad they may allow us to be taken advantage of and pushed too far. This is where an attacker, known or unknown to you sees weakness and opportunity.

Solution: Establish and enforce personal boundaries. Know what distance you are willing to go and go no further. This will keep you from giving your power away to someone else.

Ignoring Gut Feelings

As women, we are generally much more in tune with our intuition or gut feelings than men are. However, we also tend to overlook, ignore and justify actions that are not in line with our gut feelings in order to be liked and to be nice.

Solution: Realize gut feelings are survival instincts you were born with. They will always lead you the right way. Follow them.

Automatic Trust

Because women have been raised to be nice and do good things for others, we often trust untrustworthy people automatically. We can all think back to a time we trusted someone and should not have.

Solution: Trust you gut feeling (intuition) without questioning or trying to justify it. It doesn't have to be logical to be right. You will "feel" if someone is trustworthy or not. A good personal boundary to establish and enforce is, "If it feels wrong, avoid it."

Although women may be targeted by attackers, these safety tips will help all of us avoid the personal safety mistakes that portray us as good victim prospects.