I've got to disagree here. There have been many times when I've been happy to have a flashlight in my purse.

The most dramatic example was leading a group of people down eight flights of stairs during an apartment building fire. The emergency lights didn't come on, so it was pitch black in the interior stairwell.

A more mundane example would be earlier tonight, when I had to use a restroom where the lightbulb had burned out. It was also pitch black inside the restroom, and I didn't want to fall in. I clipped the LED light to my shirt, and no problem.

You could argue that it's overpriced/overkill -- the flashlight I used tonight was a Photon X-Light Micro LED flashlight, which was perfectly acceptable. During the fire I definitely wished I had a better flashlight. A LED flashlight wouldn't cut it in that circumstance -- I think I was using a 2-AA Maglite at the time, and that was barely adequate.

She might appreciate the Surefire if one of those hotels had a fire alarm go off at 3:00AM, and she needed to get down ten flights of stairs to get out.