El Chupacabra said:
Don't over think it. The learning curve on a shotgun vs AR is much easier.
Interesting. How many women have you trained on both that led to this conclusion?
It is completely opposite to my experiences teaching multiple women how to shoot handguns, shotguns and rifles.
Eta: I can think of one exception (a woman who bird hunted with her husband a lot before I ever worked with them and was very familiar with shotguns), but every single other woman has preferred literally any other option over a pump action shotgun after limited training time (sub 4 hours). Handgun, rifle, anything. Even that woman liked a semi auto over a pump.