That’s a pretty light load. Should produce a little over 1 ft-lb recoil energy. For comparison, a Charter 38 special produces a little over 6 ft-lbs, a full power Charter 32 H&R Mag would produce about 3.5 ft-lbs, and a Charter in .22 LR would be at .6 ft-lbs.
You didn’t say what size bullet you were using, but at that light a load, the effects would be minimal. Does your wife have any kind of medical condition that would make her hypersensitive to recoil? Arthritis, Carpal Tunnel, etc…. Could it also be an aversion to the sound? Make sure she’s using good sound blocking ear muffs. Sometimes a weak grip will allow even relatively light recoiling guns to over-rotate in a person’s hands. And finally, and I hate to even mention it, but could it be that she just doesn’t really want to shoot? So many factors go into it that most of us here would be guessing at the actual reason she’s struggling. The next, and only step down from a .32 would be a .22 LR revolver or semi-auto. I don’t want to arbitrarily suggest buying another gun because of the costs involved, but short of that, the only other option would be loading some .32 S&W Short rounds and trying them.
