Welcome to the webhostdir forums! Feel free to pop in and post anywhere.
This is one area where I think we can never get too much info!
Its a good idea to manually add your site to the search engines (make sure you have proper meta tags in place)
You might be hindered by some of the search engines if you are on a free host provider
I would still suggest though--> word of mouth, submitting your url every single chance you get!
Network with some women organizations, etc.
Hope this helps!!