First, figure out your budget.

Next, the hardtail vs full sus discussion
- you will get a whole lot more/better bike for your $ if you get a hard tail instead of a fs, until you hit about $1800 or so. Any full sus that cost less than that is going to be heavy, and will have so so components, whereas you can get a really tricked out light, NICE hard tail.
- There is one school of thought that says you learn much better bike handling skills on a hard tail than a fs. I am in this camp.

then, womens' bike or not?

- women's specific or not? You have to understand what wsd (womens specific design ) is. It is a geometry set for a specific set of body porprotions. Typically, long legs short torso. These bikes may also have a women's saddle, narrow handlebars, and sometimes (depends on brand) a lesser component set than an similar man bike.

-fit. Critical point. Try lots of different bikes. Lots, everyone you can get a hold of. See what too big and too small feels like. There is a tendency to oversize ( put you on a too big bike) for beginners.

here is a good faq on selecting mountain bikes
http://bbauer.gomen.org/newbike/


~irulan