I was with my female co-author at a conference. She was asked what she wanted to do while her "husband" gave his talk. She was the presenter, not me.

I understand the point being made here, but I always feel like it contains an underlying assumption that techies should be regarded as better than other types of workers. But I don't see why that should be the case; if you work in HR great, if you're an engineer great.

Because of how I look people tend to assume I'm a designer. That's of course different from discrimination based on race or gender, but I think it would be very strange to be offended by this assumption. Designers are important too, not just engineers.