In a 'perfect' world you would be able to strike a woman just as if you would strike a man. The reality is that society is twisted such that men aren't supposed to hit women at all yet a guy is supposed to take all forms of abuse from women or he 'isn't a man'. It is a ignorant plight in our society that a man cannot hit a woman and it shows in the police force in a very bad way. You can be arrested despite not doing any harm to her even if you only tried to restrain her so she would stop abusing you. Women don't help the matter when they constantly play the victim in these situations in order to 'punish' her man. Fact is, if anyone is assaulting your person you have the right to defend yourself. You will probably end up in jail either way, so teach that person a lesson. But before I get ahead of myself, generally it is not okay for a man to hit a woman because it is widely (And usually correctly) assumed that the man is stronger and more capable of inflicting damage to a typically smaller, not-as-strong woman. That's not to say that a woman can't inflict the same amount of damage to a person, but it may take more effort to do so. But to sum up, I don't think it is okay to hit a woman but in a self-defense capacity. Even then, it should only be enough effort to neutralize the threat.