That's how all of school - grade school through college - was for me. I didn't exist to women, I was a ghost, or an inanimate object, or just part of the background scenery. Of course, looking back, I see that I didn't help myself either, and how I didn't and why, but that's a long story.
The other thing was, back then, there didn't seem to be a lot of women that had enough in common with me to talk to. And there didn't seem to be a lot of people whose personalities fit in with mine. I remember there being a lot of status-obsessed people around me growing up, and since I didn't have anything that would give me status, that didn't help, and I didn't feel comfortable around those people, like I could be myself with them. They didn't seem nice, warm, friendly, approachable. If you didn't have social status, they were cold to you. So it was the people I was around.
But I started doing better - not dating, but just talking - when I started meeting women with more common interests, and personalities/natures closer to mine.
Maybe it's the women you're around? Like you said, there needs to be a conversation first, so you need people that you have something to talk about with.
I'm not trying to invalidate your experiences or feelings, though. I'm just throwing ideas out there.