A couple of cents from the outside ...
My main fear is that awkward touching thing. I never want to put a hand on a woman for any reason and now that I have one in my class, I am sure that that point will eventually come along. Not that what we do is inappropriate, but it just seems different.
Don't let it be different! The way I was taught, and the way I believe it should be, is that there is no gender in the dojo. The only people in the dojo are students, and their only requirement is to learn properly. If you treat some of the students differently because of their gender, you are stealing proper training from them and should be ashamed. Everyone has different ideas of how they wish to train. Some people don't want too rough of a training atmosphere while others thrive on it. Gender should be absolutely irrelevent in that regard, and it all starts with the instructor. If the instructor insists that it is irrelevent, the rest of the students will follow suit. I absolutely agree with Neil that everyone should be treated exactly the same within the confines of the dojo.
Sword styles vary, of course. Ours is supposed to be most like Sekiguchi Ryu (according to Kiyama Hiroshi Sensei) if that helps. The style is rather dynamic, with compression cuts rather than the Eishin-ryu style extended cut.
That's cool Emily, I never realized that before. Do you guys also do the Sekiguchi tobiichigai?
Paul Smith
"Always keep the sharp side and the pointy end between you and your opponent"