She should pick the better teacher. The style will not guarantee that she will learn how to defend herself. I have seen too many Krav Maga schools that rely waaaay too much on strength to muscle their way through the techniques. No woman would stand a chance against a man if she depended on muscling their way. I have also seen Aiki schools that literally dance. All they learn is how to flow but that is only a tiny part of Aikido. Much more has to be learned than just flowing. Flowing alone will also get you into trouble in a fight and is totally ineffective. You also need to learn good techniques and the many tiny details that make the techniques work. So find a teacher who can teach self defense that works without using a lot of strength.

I have yet to see an aikido school in my area that is actually not a mcdojo. If I were you, I would do krav maga, but, make sure you have a good instructor. I'm lucky that I have a Krav Maga school, about ten minutes away from me. The only problem with these two martial arts is that neither one of them have actual sparring, so it would be hard for you to get experience. What you could try to do, is some other martial art like kickboxing, or boxing, so that you would be used to being in an actual fight. Because say you were in a self defense situation, and you had to maybe block an incoming knife strike, and return with a punch, if you did boxing, and you threw the punch, you will know that the attacker felt it. So, I recommend you do krav maga, and maybe another martial art to supplement it. Good luck.

If a woman wants to learn how to defend herself, especially against multiple attackers, should she take Krav Maga, or Aikido and why? Obviously the way multiple attacker situations are dealt with and fought very differently than what we usually see on TV and stuff.