[rakoo]

You seem to be falling in the "they dress for men" fallacy that was addressed in the article: maybe they dress in cute pink dresses just to send a big FUCK YOU. Maybe they're not sending any signals and you're using that as an excuse for the different treatment you do.

But the real problem is that the situations you are talking about do not happen when meeting a complete stranger at random in the street; the encounter happens in a tech conference or at work, where you can expect people to be there because of their skills and interests.

Would you ever expect any male to be present in a tech conf not because he's interested in the technology but because he's accompanying someone ? Why is it normal to expect it for females ?

The problem is absolutely not in how women dress/behave/talk/present, it's how the other persons (including other women!) expect something different simply because of their gender.