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"The obvious difficulty with this whole scheme is that the woman spoken of in Rev. 12 is figurative (the book is, after all, a book in symbols; "signified" in Rev. 1:1)."

I would generally agree with this except in the passage in question (Rev. 12:1-17) all of the other characters are clearly identifiable individuals. For example. the male child is Jesus (vv 2, 4, 5 and 13), Michael the archangel is Michael the archangel (v 7) and the great dragon is "that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deciever of the whole world (vv 3-4, 7, 9-10, 12-13, 15-18). This is of course, the individual Satan.

So in context, and in consistency with the rest of the passage, if all these are all individuals, then so is the woman, at least on one level (you can also admit an additional symbolic level). Furthermore, if we can acknowledge that the male child is the individual Jesus, which is plain, then the individual who gave birth to him (v. 5) is--surprise--Mary.