blog.progopedia.com/.../
Grandmother was born in Dneprodzerzhinsk, a city in Central Ukraine. To get a proper higher education, she had to relocate to another city; after consulting the enrollee's reference book which listed all universities, departments and majors she chose Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and moved to Kyiv. Enrollment competition used to be severe in those days, but Grandmother graduated from high school with honors (called "silver medal" in Soviet countries), and thus had to pass only a brief interview.
It's hard to say how exotic the job of a programmer looked to outsiders at those times - Grandmother's husband and friend all had the same job or a relevant one. However, we can say for sure that there was no special attitude toward women in the job - there were plenty of them, and it never made an impression. Evidently, all this "wow, a girl can code!" stuff is a later achievement :-)