Also what is it about Perl that attracts more males than females?

As others have said, this is a problem with computer science in general, not with Perl. In truth, I think Perl attracts a somewhat more gender balanced crowd than some other areas of CS; I'm a teaching assistant for a Perl class, and I'm pleasantly surprised at the number of women in the class. (I'd estimate about 20% of the class is female.)

The Java class I took recently, however, was almost entirely male -- there were maybe three women in a class of 80-90 students. As a woman, I felt incredibly outnumbered. There was even overt gender discrimination; I was constantly talked down to by the (entirely male) teaching staff, unlike my male counterparts, and never really listened to. (It's not as if I'm a shrinking violet, either. I'm assertive and ask reasonably intelligent questions.)

As for your friend, I think she needs to meet more of what she calls "computer people." I certainly know the stereotype she's talking about, and while it does hold some amount of truth, we "computer people" aren't all socially inept white men.