Wow... lots of advice here so far.

If you are thinking of a road bike, but you will be carrying stuff and want easier gears, then you want a touring bike - like a road bike, but, ummm... you can carry stuff and they have easier gears.

Many people think woman's specific bike designs are a marketing ploy... not that there aren't some real differences between men and women, but most WSDs rely on generalities regarding torso-leg-length ratios, and in reality the bikes are just less aggressively laid out, and just about anyone would be more comfortable on them, unless they have gotten used to riding racing style bikes. THen there are special seats for your lady-bits, small models might have smaller brake levers (as someone said above) or extra short cranks. You probably won't need to worry about all that stuff for puny people, and a lot of the other stuff is personal preference.

But I think touring bikes are the cat's meow... if you can find one in your budget that you are comfortable on... A lot of people like the Trek 520; a handful of people where I work ride the specialized tricross, but i don't know if it is easy to set up for carrying luggage.

Good luck! Just make sure you are comfortable on whatever you get... the rest is just details!