When I was a kid my parents let us roam around all day. They wouldn't worry about our safety unless we didn't show up to dinner. Times have changed. Children are abducted daily. Violence against women is at a high. Practicing some kind of self defense is a wise move, particularly for people of smaller stature because they APPEAR less intimidating.
When choosing what kind of self-defense to study, don't choose it based on what's closest to your home or office. This could be a life and death decision so choose wisely. I highly recommend you consider Wing Chun K'ung Fu and here are some things you'll want to know about it.
Wing Chun is very well suited for smaller, slighter people. In fact, stronger larger people might actually be at a disadvantage studying it. It was developed by Chinese nuns and designed not to require great strength or size. So, it is well-suited to women and children. It was the martial art which Bruce Lee studied. That should tell you that it is very effective.
Wing Tsun is a "soft style" of martial arts. Some martial arts require constant physical training to keep your body in an extremely fit state. This obviously becomes a greater and greater challenge as we age. Soft styles start you out with slow, soft movements so as to ingrain a physical memory of the correct movements into your subconscious. With practice, this allows you to respond instantly even before you consciously decide to. More power is added after you have the movements down well.
Some people assume it takes a great deal of time to master an Asian martial art. If I am not mistaken you can achieve what other styles would consider a black belt level of skill in 2-3 years, but of course that varies widely depending on your aptitude and how often you attend classes. There is always more to learn, and your degree of skill will continue to improve, but this should be enough time to master the 3 main "forms".
Wing Chun is not flashy. It is very direct. There are no high or twirling kicks. Those are only going to expose you to attack. Kicks are no higher than waist high. If you know what you're doing, combat against an attacker will be over in a minute or less.
You are trained to block and attack back simultaneously. Martial artists from other styles have described combat against a Wing Chun master as if you were hitting yourself. That is because Wing Chun trains you to respond so quickly that your attacker may just be in the first instant of their attack by the time you are already responding. Their punch is blocked and they are counter-attacked before their attack has really begun.
You fight in close quarters which has the advantage of limiting the power of their punches and kicks, and also allows you to be very sensitive to their movements so as to react very quickly.
The goal of all martial arts is not just to teach you very specific movements, but to teach you to respond instantly at a subconscious level. If you have to consciously recall what moves to use when an attacker is doing a particular thing to you, you are not going to win that fight. That is where many "self defense classes" fail.
But in addition to teaching you how to fight, a good martial art will give you confidence, and help you respond to challenging events in your life without fear. I don't just mean combat, I mean all of your life.
Here are some links to demonstrations of this extremely effective martial art:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdLuNBSwFoE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-K6WZhWp7pg&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDnm0YiNfcA
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