IMO always pick something more basic like a light back squat especially for a female who sounds less experienced? Don’t forget the general idea that you can add but you can’t take away. What is the rush anyway? The squat can be mimicked in a multitude of ways.
If I had a female client and there was some discussion about what challenging lower body exercise to begin with? Have you done the med ball " around the body" exercise with her? and " under hand throws" ? Both are an excellent way to get a lot of work done, they are fun to do and both provide some background to move closer to more lifting. Intensifying work for anyone has to be somewhat of an experiment as you need to consider the individual first and decide the exercises based on your best thoughts / based on your experience thus far. Does this make sense?
Good luck.