In some cases, women are violent towards their male partners as self-defence or in response to physical, emotional or sexual abuse from partners. This doesn't in any way excuse any person's use of abuse or violence of any kind in a relationship. Even if used in self-defence, it's risky.
Although this was from a book (and I'll see if I can find the quote on t'internet,) the late Suzanne Steinmetz, world renowned advocate for Battered Men stated that she accepted that the dynamics of violence towards women and towards men in relationships was different.
When women experience abuse, they tend to internalise it. They often blame themselves and/or try to "manage" the situation to stop him from being violent. Abusive men also try to convince their partners that they are to blame (e.g. you made me do it, you provoked me, etc.) Societal messages also tend to reinforce the idea that female victims of abuse are at least partly to blame, or diminish their experiences with that throw away, "why doesn't she leave it it's so bad then," comment.
When men experience abuse from a female partner, they are more likely to internalise it. Like female victims, they may feel betrayed, anxious, depressed, etc., but they tend to cite blame for the abuse firmly with the female partner. For example, they insist that she is mentally ill, has uncontrollable PMT or something like that. The crucial difference is that, unlike abused women, they don't tend to blame themselves or believe that they did anything themselves to bring it on.
That's a pretty critical difference between how men and women conceptualise their experience of abuse in a relationship. Basically, it's awful for both, but men are less likely to think that there is something inherently wrong with them because they've been abused. Their personal self-esteem doesn't take the kind of "hit" that it does for a woman.