A client at kickboxing gym 30 Minute Hit, with branch owner Brian Keaton. Credit: KATHY STANLEY

A client at kickboxing gym 30 Minute Hit, with branch owner Brian Keaton.

A client at kickboxing gym 30 Minute Hit, with branch owner Brian Keaton. KATHY STANLEY

Tracey Drum joined the Feminist Karate Union (FKU) 27 years ago, after a neighbor threatened to kill her and her boyfriend in their U-District apartment. “I never thought it would transform my life,” she says. “I thought I would learn some self-defense moves that would put my mind at ease and I could return to my usual routine. But karate became my routine.”

Formed by Py Bateman in 1971, FKU, now located in Sodo, is staffed entirely by women, all of whom are volunteers. They include a retired medical doctor, a lawyer, a scientist, and an entrepreneur whose business involves self-defense training for women and girls.

Dave Segal is a journalist and DJ living in Seattle. He has been writing about music since 1983. His stuff has appeared in Gale Research’s literary criticism series of reference books, Creem (when...