Women's Olympic bar

I agree with Brian that strength shop are a good company to deal with. However, I would be hesitant to go with their bars if they are going to be dropped from overhead frequently. I have had two of the men's spring steel weightlifting bars and they both crapped out after a couple of months use. The first one bent and later one of the sleeves locked up. Got a replacement and it's sleeve locked up after a couple of months as well.

I have to say that they're customer service is good, they covered all the shipping costs for sending the first bar back and the second one out. It's more a case of the bar just not being a high enough quality.

With female bars you are going to have to spend a bit more on a quality bar due to the diameter being smaller. The tensile strength of the steel used will have to be higher. You can sometimes get away with lower tensile strength on mens bars because they are thicker, that's why a lot of cheap bars can be as larger as 32mm.

The Again Faster bar that Hanley recommended might be a good choice if your on a tight budget. Lots of good reviews from the States about them and they have a good warranty on their products as well. It is a bushing bar though which will require a bit of maintenance every so often.

Pendlay bars get good reviews as well and are becoming more common on this side of the pond. They come in both bushing and bearing models, with the bearing model being a bit more pricey. An Irish store (D8 fitness) is getting these in soon, next week I think. Strength shop sell them too. Pendlay bars come with a lifrtime warranty as well AFAIK.

Then you have your eleiko, werksan etc. which are all quite expensive but will last a lifetime.

Hope this is of some help to you.