Well, I wouldn't hit anyone for words. Never have and I doubt I ever will.
The way I see it is this... In any given social interaction there is the possibility of physical force being leveraged to solve whatever the problem is. I want what you have? Force. You're in my way? Force. You're being a dick? Force. When someone is in a position of clear physical advantage, there is a sort of unspoken social contract that makes pleasant and equal dealing possible - and that social contract says that force will not be leveraged by either person, particularly the person with the physical advantage. Then people can hash it out through dialogue, clever wordplay, seduction, whatever the hell they want. If I, as the larger and stronger person who knows how to effectively perpetrate violence on another human willingly take force off the table, the weaker partner had better not violate that social contract and put force back on the table because the only reason the interaction is free and open is because I have willingly retracted my ability to solve the problem by force.
My view is that, when I (the stronger partner) am willingly removing force from the equation and someone else, man or woman, brings it back in, then just a bit of force to reinforce the importance of keeping force off the table is justified in teaching them an important lesson on the integrity of this unspoken social contract. A quick hook to the gut does wonders for reminding someone why they want to keep things civil and doesn't stand much chance of doing lasting damage. Now, I don't think you should do this just because - people make mistakes, do things in fits of high emotion, etc. Violence is not a tool to use willy-nilly - but sometimes it is a good thing to remind the weaker party of the importance of having violence taken out of the interaction.