Well...there's different guns for different situations. A gun for protecting the house, a gun for protecting land or wider range, a gun for hunting small game, one for large game, etc. And among all these, a particular gun would be better for one person than another.

But for starters, i would focus more on home protection. You can't go wrong with a 9mm...females usually don't have a problem shooting this, and it is more than suffice. You can't go wrong with a Glock as mentioned above. Or you could go with a 12 gauge shotgun and use different rounds for different situations...shotguns are more versatile in that sense.