Differences

 Men and women are different.
This simple fact must be the starting point when teaching tai chi self defence to female students.

Men have testosterone, they enjoy using force, being aggressive and competing with one another. They are usually quite happy being roughed-up and roughing people up in return.
Although only a few of these qualities are of any use in tai chi, it enables men to feel more comfortable working martially than most women do.

Women bring entirely different qualities to tai chi.
These are actually the very values and sensibilities that tai chi seeks to cultivate in the male student.
The challenge for the female student is to harness their strengths, to have faith in themselves and the art, and to overcome their conditioned inhibitions.