There is nothing inherently sexist in recommending a revolver. My youngest brother, the odd duck in our firearms savvy family, finally got around to wanting a first home defense piece when he became a homeowner.
After gauging his level of interest in regularly shooting a handgun, which was low, I recommended a pump action shotgun.
He said his wife wouldn't ever want to fire that.
Back to handguns. I recommended the 3" fixed sight Ruger GP-100 in .357 and told him to load it up and the both of them practice with .38 Specials.
No external controls. Mucho weight to tame relatively little recoil. A gutter sight that takes no figuring out. That Ruger comes with a smaller factory grip that is liable to fit the both of them adequately. It can be left loaded indefinitely. An S&W Model 10 would be the second choice, primarily because they are as rare as hen's teeth at a reasonable price.
There is no more intuitive cleaning job than that of cleaning a revolver.
My varied experience with nieces and the wives of friends I have taken shooting before is that without prompting, they will, of their own volition gravitate to a revolver. That is based on two primary complaints. Several have had issues with racking slides, especially those invested in any nail work, and the other issue is fully loading magazines, especially on high cap 9mms and dealing with the brass. "Here, you do it." (Load mags, rack slides, or clean up) is not conducive to encouraging practice. Some lasses I have had out shooting especially disliked the odd hot casing striking them directly or on the rebound, or forcing them to borrow a hat. A general dislike of flying brass has also been reinforced at the end when the gals note that they aren't policing revolver brass, only auto brass--another inducement to practice if they own a revolver.
However, it is imperative that the revolver fit a gal's hand.
I might recommend a Glock to a noob who showed genuine interest in mastering it, but its way down the list of autos I'd recommend as a first pistol.
First, Glocks require a pull of the trigger to disassemble. Stories are legion where this is done out of sequence by the careless and one of the factors that gives Glocks their legendary ND anecdote rate.
Second, though people steadfastly compare Glocks to revolvers, it just ain't so. The closest are the NY triggered ones, which are not common. The standard Glock does not possess the margin for user error that a revolver's strong DA pull provides. Expecting perfect or seasoned gun handling out of a neophyte is asking a lot and Glocks are particularly unforgiving of poor handling.
DAO semi auto pistols with the traditional 8-12 pound consistent trigger pulls are more akin to revolvers than are the lighter triggered Glocks. There are plenty of slicksided autos out there for a first pistol, and most of them are perfectly serviceable S&W, Beretta, SIG, or other name brand police retirees.
I'd recommend any of those over a Glock for the potential non-enthusiast who doesn't want a revolver.
