DP steels tend to form microstructural damage sites during forming processes due to a pronounced mechanical contrast of the ferrite/martensite phases. These damages sites negatively influence the global mechanical properties of the material during their nucleation and growth stages, which eventually lead to failure once coalescence of existing voids occurs. Measuring the mechanical contrast and hence the properties of the individual phases, especially along the strain path is indispensable when trying to understand the process of damage evolution. The current work shows an effective way to measure the strain hardening in ferrite with the help of phase segmentation based on hardness measurements via rapid nanoindentation mapping. Correlating these results with quantitative damage assessment carried out in a scanning electron microscope demonstrated how strain hardening can inhibit damage formation.