I'm a lot more prone to bet one of 3 issues if a grown woman "won't touch" a .308win: 1) rifle fitment issue, 2) lack of proper recoil management training, and/or 3) a simple mental fear of recoil.
My 125lb wife runs a fleet of rifles, including a Marlin 1895 guide gun, Ruger Hawkeyes in 7RM, 338wm, and 416Ruger, 300wsm and 338win mag Savages, and a .308win AR-10/LR308, among others at the lower end of the spectrum. She's shot all of my .375 H&H's, 416Rigby, 458wm, and 458lott rifles as well. She's telling me right now she's shot my CZ 505 Gibbs, but I don't recall when that would have been. My 140lb sister shoots a .300wm and a .338wm, my mother shoots a .30-06. My sis-in-law, who I'd peg at 125-130, shoots an 18" 308win.
Outside of my own family, I've instructed women and girls in rifle courses and hunter's safety education courses for many years, the 308win is a very common cartridge selected by their husbands, dads, boyfriends, etc to push on women, and I have yet to have a woman I couldn't coach to shoot it comfortably - pending a well fit stock.
But if the rifle doesn't fit, or the shooter doesn't know how to manage recoil properly, or if the shooter is simply scared of recoil because someone planted an idea in their head, then even a lowly 308win will be rough.
