I dont think people should hit PEOPLE.
And if you want to add INEQUALITY to it - size, power, etc - okay, I get that. But not strictly gender-based.
Suppose it's Iris Kyle, spitting/hitting a 120-pound weak 45 year old man in an elevator. He swings to protect himself after moving away and being cornered, and he knocks her down, she hits head on way down, is knocked out.
Are we calling for dude to get fired? Nope. So immediately, let's remove gender from it, and make it about bigger/smaller human beings. Fire Ray Rice because he punched out a smaller, weak person. Not because she was born with a vagina. If Iris Kyle is slapping/spitting on Ray Rice - and it's on video - and he hits her... Is he kicked out of NFL right now?