This doesn't surprise me. In Europe it's not uncommon to find women in computer science or engineering. In the US it's not unheard of. In Australia it's extremely rare and most of those that you do find were born overseas.
In practice, I have found that there are women who are as good as men when it comes to programming. I strongly believe that women don't have any inherent disadvantage. It is just social conditioning.
Unfortunately once such a pattern is established it's hard to break. I myself find the lack of diversity in the field to be off putting. I can't imagine what it'd be like for females.