"There's definitely explicit condescension," she says. "There's definitely the kind of thing where when you finish talking to the person your heart is in your knees."

These more subtle modes of discrimination may not be as visible to those not directly affected by it.

Georgi, a former chair of the physics department, says he hasn't observed much overt discrimination.

"As far as marginalization is concerned I don't see it in my own department." Georgi says. He added that he thought the women in the department might feel marginalized just because there are so few of them.

Franklin says she has confronted Knowles with her concerns and found him unresponsive.

"I don't think we know what the answers are, but I don't think Dean Knowles thinks it's his problem, and maybe it's not," she says. "But I think it is."

Administrators agree that departmental culture can be a problem, but say that department chairs need to change that from within.

"Is [culture] something that University Hall can do? I don't think so," says Elizabeth Doherty, assistant dean for academic planning. "It's not something that can be legislated."