How are female MIT students treated?

I was an undergrad in the class of '88, course VII, and if I say so myself, I'm not unattractive.I never had sexism or assumptions about my incompetence.The saying was "MIT women are MIT men who worked their balls off in high school."The culture is meritocratic, and the workload and need for cooperation is so high that people care more about what you can do than what you look like.

They are treated as intellectual equals, but if they look attractive their MIT status is questioned because people think MIT girls ignore their appearance.They don't care how they look, they wear grungy clothes and don't brush their hair, and they don't wear makeup.This is wrong, but people think so.

I liked prejudice in the other direction.I went straight from the final to the Boston symphony concert carrying books and a large slide rule, which should tell you that back in the day.We enjoyed the concert and then dated for a while.She told me that if she'd known I was an MIT nerd she wouldn't have talked to me.