Yes, but also no. There have obviously been girls and women that have been interested in nerdy things like computers, sci fi, and fantasy as long as there have been nerdy things. Unfortunately, the early 2000s and before were a difficult time to be nerdy for anyone regardless of gender. Watch any 80s and 90s TV show and all the nerds/geeks will always be shown in the worst possible light. Even the "cool" nerds like Screech in Saved by the Bell were mostly used as punching bags for jokes. They were only ever allowed to join the "cool" kids because of the benevolent acceptance of that one one cool guy such as Zack in Saved by the Bell.
On the rare chance that a girl nerd was even shown on TV, great steps were taken to ensure that she was as unattractive and unacceptable as possible. She would likely be some combination of fat, poorly dressed, and showing poor hygeine. She certainly had the worst possible glasses and unkempt hair. It was made abundantly clear that she didn't have any friends (outside of the nerdy boys). I'd imagine it did a lot to chase away any girls from the nerdy interests they might have had. At the very least, it strongly encouraged those girls to keep it a secret that they wouldn't dare share with most people.
All this is to say that few people were even willing to admit publically that they were geeky. I remember a friend of mine was a huge Star Wars fan in 3rd grade. By 6th grade he wouldn't even admit to me that he had ever even watched it in the first place. Thankfully, by the time I was growing up the social stigma of geekiness was lessening for boys, but that same stigma of being a geek meant that few girls were willing to admit their guilty pleasures.
