Certain martial arts and forms of fighting are more successful than others at self defense. as a woman, I honestly don't think boxing would be helpful. Women get grabbed and restrained. You can't get out of that with a punch. Even if you did manage to punch, it likely wouldn't be strong enough to debilitate a man.
You should try something like aikido. Works bether for women.
I am a girl. I was training kick boxing and teakwondo. Doing ring sparings too. They really help cause you feel more confident and know some tricks and are fitter but all are sports with rules ;) When you get attacked there are no rules at all! so for that I took some training for self defence derived from militar ... its definitly different and very usefull for grabbing chocking pinning down situations or even knifes and guns.
But my personal opinion is the most important is the attitude you have. I had some situations when walking back home in night, some nasty guys calling etc.... but they never try to really attack .... probably they feel its not wort it ;)
I had even few times when i was sooooo disappointed they did not and i could not check my skills out.... I know its crazy but I just felt like that ;)
Im weak hahaha dont have any strength in my arms. My lucky is that I'm tall, about 170cm.. So when some guy tries something funny, I stand up and make a "piss off from here" face, it helps 'cause I can do that eye to eye, you know. I will check out aikido and self defense!! Tks guys
I would love to know how to box, as a girl, I think its really necessary to know how to defense yourself from bad people