As a white male returned Peace Corps volunteer (Nepal 1987-1989), I dealt with issues of isolation, malnutrition, privacy, loneliness, and harassment...
My future wife (left) with a fellow PC Nepal volunteer who endured way more scary situations than I ever had to.
But I never had to deal with the many types of uncomfortable and dangerous situations that my female counterparts had to endure on a regular basis!
Female volunteers as a group represent the best of our US culture, intelligent, motivated, and hard working; and as a group they often minimized how often they were left alone, attacked, and violated during their daily activities. The women volunteers I worked with almost always tried to travel with someone else to avoid vulnerable situations and to provide for their safety--- I never felt like they were scared--I always got the impression that they just thought it would eliminate hassles. In Nepal and in 1987, to travel alone as a single US female was considered a great personal risk.
Peace Corps service is kind of a media darling in that it garners many "feel good" stories in the US and abroad... and many volunteers do have an overall wonderful and profoundly positive life changing experience. However, many female volunteers also experience sexual harassment and violence that they never anticipated and there is often too little medical or emotional support within the Peace Corps system to help them after they have been assaulted.