"She's a Woman" has received praise from several music critics and musicologists for McCartney's strong vocal and the band's loud backing, though some have criticised its lyrics as weak.

In his post-Beatles career, McCartney has occasionally performed the song in concert, including an acoustic version that appeared on his 1991 live album Unplugged (The Official Bootleg).

[2][3] Appearing on the radio programme Top Gear on 17 November 1964, he explained that he only had "about one verse" ready on the morning of the session, finishing the rest of the song once in the studio.

[4] In his authorised biography, Many Years from Now, he recalls that the initial idea came to him while walking around the streets of St John's Wood, but is unsure whether he finished the song at home, on his way to the studio, or once actually there.

Comparing it to his earlier composition "Can't Buy Me Love", he further recalls the song as an attempt to write "a bluesy thing" in the style of one of his favourite singers, Little Richard.

[14] Musicologist Walter Everett characterises the format as structurally similar to "Can't Buy Me Love", joining a minor pentatonic verse with a major mode bridge.

[16] Comparing its beginning to "I Want to Hold Your Hand", Everett writes that before the song's beat has been established, the "sneaky accenting" of offbeats results in an "off-center introduction".

[12] Rather than playing a typical rhythm guitar section, Lennon provides a distinct sound to the track by only hitting the off-beats,[2] adding a reggae accent to the song,[18] and which McCartney later explained, "left a lot of space for the rest of the stuff".

[2] Musicologist Ian MacDonald calls McCartney's legato bass line the "structural centrepiece" of the song and that "without it, the other elements in this stark arrangement would make no sense".

[18] Everett suggests it is instructive to compare "the simple form and involved melodicism" of the song against "the opposite emphases" heard on Ray Charles's "I Got a Woman".

[1] The Beatles had one of their earliest experiences with the drug six weeks earlier – smoking with Bob Dylan in New York City during their 1964 North American tour[23] – with Lennon reflecting in 1980 that "[w]e were so excited to say 'turn me on' – you know, about marijuana and all that, using it as an expression".

[28][note 3] Journalist Mark Hertsgaard calls the take "a spirited, if somewhat ragged, jam",[21] while Everett suggests it comes closer to Lennon's 1969 song "Cold Turkey" than any other pre-1968 recording.

[27] Playing the solo nearly identically each time – capturing the same ornamental hammer-ons, pull-offs and portamento slides – the double tracking alters the guitar's tonal qualities.

[46] Among contemporaneous reviews, Derek Johnson in the NME described "She's a Woman" as "arresting and ear-catching", and highlighted the track's "pounding beat" and blues-inflected vocal.

[53] Writing that it is the first Beatles song to feature a high profile bass line, he opines that it foreshadows McCartney's later "striving to get his instrument 'up' in volume, tone, and octave".

[54][note 5] Everett writes that his piano playing on the song "[took] his keyboard work to a new level",[31] while describing Harrison's guitar solo as rockabilly in style, heavily influenced by guitarist Carl Perkins.

[55][note 6] Rolling Stone critic Rob Sheffield opines that the song's "power-chord thud" anticipates the sound of the heavy metal band Black Sabbath.

[8] Calling the song a "throaty McCartney rocker", Hertsgaard describes the line, "My love don't give me presents / I know that she's no peasant" as "one of the most awkward rhymes in the Beatles' catalogue.

[61][62] The Beatles regularly performed the song during their 1965 and 1966 tours,[63][64] sequencing it second in the set list after "Twist and Shout", "I Feel Fine" or "Rock and Roll Music".

[67][68] Author Jonathan Gould describes this performance as the "definitive version" of the song,[69] while pop historian Robert Rodriguez writes that the combination of "Twist and Shout" and "She's a Woman" "[kicks] things off with a bang".

[71] Author John Winn describes the concert as a particularly poor performance,[72] and Beatles road manager Neil Aspinall later suggested that the lack of screaming from the respectful Japanese audience caused the group to realise they were playing out of tune.

[80] In a retrospective assessment coinciding with the album's 1995 CD re-release, Adrea Moed of CMJ New Music Monthly magazine remarked that the playing on the cover displays a "technical virtuosity [that] almost makes you forget [the song’s] origins".