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Upper body strength was not an issue. She is plenty strong.

Issue #1 was her arthritis. Manipulating the semiauto pistol required more unfamiliar muscle memory than the revolver, and the new dexterity requirements caused pain in her hands.

Issue #2 - silly to us men, but meant a lot to her - she was concerned about injury from the slide whille racking and during shooting. She has seen me bleed from scratches and nicks from my semiautos. The differences between men and women are obvious at times like these. She bore my sons and tolerated the pain and was glad to do it. My hands are scarred monuments to dog bites, knife wounds, callouses from firing thousands and thousands of rounds of ammo, hammers, screwdrivers and myriads of other injuries. If she is worried about injury, she does not fare well with a weapon.

There are several ways to teach a woman to rack the slide of a semi auto.Some find it easier to hold the pistol close to the chest with the pistol in strong hand grip(finger off trigger), with weak hand on slide with thumb pointing to strong arm (overhand grip). Push pistol towards weak side with strong hand and hold slide while racking slide. Release slide when slide is at full back position.

An easy way is to insert empty clip into pistol, pull slide back to lock. Drop clip, insert full clip, extend pistol away from body and pull slide back to release slide and allow to seat round in chamber.

You just have to try several ways and see which is best for her. There are small pistols that have pop up barrels to insert a round eliminating the need to rack the slide.

My wife handled the Glock 17 and 19 easily. She qualified with the 17. She carries a S&W 642 snubbie. Fewer moving parts. A lot of the ladies like the wheelguns.