They are focused on biochemistry, biology, medicine, audio engineering, geology, architecture, marine biology, genetic engineering, truck mechanics, electrical technicians, etc. I have only met a few that were hip to CS in any real sense. Those few were either UI designers/developers (yes they wrote code), or Psychology majors with an interest in UX (didn't write code for development, but did write code for processing their study data).
Stop the pigeon-holing! Many disciplines encourage their practitioners to learn coding, indirectly! HOWEVER, most of the specific personages I reference indirectly above were coders because their disciplinary goals required that they learn to write code on their own, NOT because their discipline requires it, but because their projects indirectly require it! Having a strong coding background myself I was in a position to offer useful advice on where they could refine their skills to achieve their disciplinary goals with code. It really had very little to do with pure CIS... It had to do with getting a pie-eating-contest off their plate so they could move on to the rest of their research!
Code development is not an end. It is a means to accomplish a disciplinary goal that cannot be solved by any other method, and all of the academic and professional women I have met dealing with that particular challenge grok that. They don't love computers, but they know what such machines can do for them, and they are more than willing to roll up their sleeves to learn it, and keep their hands dirty in it, only so long as that effort is required to satisfy that portion of their larger goal.
SO:
In K-12 teach Discrete Math, Data Structures, Algorithms and call it good. If you must get feed back, teach them a core language like ANSI C. But let it go after that. Make it a required section of every math class, scale it to fit the level expected for that student. By the end of k-12 every student should know what an integer and a float is, what a pointer is, what arrays and strings are, what control statements are, and why they are important for computer processing. This should be true even if they never want to see a line of code again. Put it where it belongs. Programming is applied math. Treat it as such. Don't bury women in a discipline that does not interest them. Teach them how they can apply Discrete Math and automatic computation in their own path.
Coda: Women generally won't spend 20 years studying one species of dragonfly -- guys have, and do similar things all the time. That is a guy thing.
Women, if they focus down on something like fruit fly larva, it is generally for a greater purpose that tends to broaden their efforts not narrow them. That is a key difference between guys and gals. Guys are content, for a lot of bad, or ill-defined reasons, to narrow down to a laser fine focus on shit that most women just can't be bothered with. It is not that women can't do it, or won't do it! I think it is more that they recognize it is usually self-destructive and self-limiting. I think the feminine approach is healthier, for a lot of reasons.
