Aikido is a woman's art for the reasons you said.

Do you mean to say Aikido isn't for men?

If so, what would you say to men like Ueshiba Morihei, Mitsugi Saotome, Donovan Waite, and other very strong and martial men who have practiced or practice Aikido?

Even here in diverse California, the dojo where I train, which has been around 20 years, tested its first woman for shodan only 2 years ago.

Aikido does appeal to women more than other martial arts, and I'd say the fact that it appeals to women and men, mostly adults, makes it a strong and balanced martial art, not a "woman's art". Before I found Aikido, I admit I walked into a Tae Kwon Do dojo with an interest towards training. The throng of 12-year-old boys trying to earn their "camo belt" (I am *not* making that up!) had me out of there within 5 minutes.

The reason there is no competition in true Aikido isn't because the Aikido philosophy doesn't believe in competition, but because Aikido techniques (and in fact many martial arts techniques) are potentially so damaging that it is extremely dangerous to practice with anything short of compassion, blending, and restraint, which a "I must win" mentality conflicts with. A friend of mine just had surgery to re-attach his bicep that was torn away from his bone because someone doing a demonstration with him as uke decided, after opening his own dojo, that it was necessary to show his new students what "real Aikido" was. This man is a shodan, a body builder, and has *excellent* ukemi. The reason he was injured as badly as he was wasn't a lack of skill from either partner, but rather an overabundance of testosterone and pride. (Which he'll readily admit himself at this point.)

The women I know who train in Aikido are often constantly training to try to become more assertive and more martial, and the men more compassionate and peace-oriented. When someone truly gets that balance, it's a strong and beautiful thing.

Ultimately one doesn't train in Aikido because they want to kick ass in real-life situations, but I've never heard of a serious Aikido practicioner who had the art fail them if and when such an eventuality occurred. There's no fisticuffs though... just one technique and it's done.

Not trying to sell you on Aikido, but if you were training in any martial art and getting into fights every weekend, I wonder if you might consider embracing the whole discpline/budo aspect of martial arts training.