Naturally the BEST thing to do is establish what brand she likes and go from there. I don't know your wife but based on helping other women choose rifles over the years let her handle a Browning A-Bolt/X-Bolt in Micro Medallion or whatever they call the youth model or a Remington or even Savage in .260 or better yet 7mm08. I 1st started my daughter out with a 7mm08 and her very 1st year she got 2 clean 1 shot kills at the ripe old age of 11!

I bought a Tikka T3 Lite in stainless for my 14YO daughter. It fits her perfectly. We got it in .243 Win so it doesn't kick hardly at all. It's very light to handle and very accurate out of the box. Don't use the free rings that come with it though. I've heard lots of people having issues with them creeping. Get a good set of Warne rings. They make them for the Tikkas.

http://www.tikka.fi/rifles/tikka-t3/t3-lite-stainless

Nice, for a female-use bolt-action. Another light-recoil option could have been a gas semi-auto like mine..... Remington 7400 .270

Most men pick the wrong gun
 

for a woman. They pick guns for themself. That's what they know. Can't usually fathom picking a rifle of such caliber for the woman. It usually doesn't have enough power for the man.
Pick a rifle your wife is comfortable holding and aiming.
Pick a lighter caliber you wouldn't pick.

semi-auto is not an option as one of the states we will be hunting doesn't allow them. Bolt is the way we are going.

We are pretty much locked in on 7mm-08

She's handled a few guns so far, most have been eliminated as not fitting:

- Remington 700 to long, haven't found a model 7 yet
- Tika (not sure which one), to long

Savage Axis fit good, but struck us both as "cheaply made", they also had a model 11 lady hunter which fit nice.

Heading to Harrisburg Sporting show to try some more (and probably book a hunt!).

I bought my daughter a Remington model Seven in 7mm-08. Nice shooting rifle with hardly any recoil. Topped it with a Leupold 3x9 and she was good to go.

Rob, my daughter has almost the very same exact setup except her 7mm08 topped with Leupold is a older model Rem 788! Of course the 788 USED to be my favorite deer rifle until I lost it right after she busted 2 deer with it (both 1 shot clean kills) her very 1st year hunting. Since that moment on, she's claimed it!

Yeah, the 7mm-08 is a great caliber. My daughter has taken 5 or 6 deer with hers and most have been 1 shot kills.

My 10 year old nephew uses a rem model seven in 7mm/08 topped with a Leupold 2-7. A nice light handy rifle he has taken 3 deer with it so far. My cousins boy has a rem model seven also in 7/08 and has taken many Deer and a bear with his.

Perfect choice of cartridge. 7mm-08 offers great ballistics and bullet choices for all of the game you've listed, and noticeably milder recoil than the .270.

Note that you can always take a Remmy 700 in and have the stock cut down to size. I did this when my wife wanted to try trap shooting. Bought her a Beretta A303 youth model 20 gauge and shortened the stock on it to get the right fit (she's only 4'11" "and a half" as she always says - LOL).