In an unusually candid report released Friday, MIT acknowledged unintentional discrimination against its female faculty members.

"I have always believed that contemporary gender discrimination within universities is part reality and part perception,...but I now understand that reality is by far the greater part of the balance," wrote MIT President Charles M. Vest in his comments preceding the report.

The report, compiled by MIT's Committee on Women Faculty, cited discrepancies between male and female faculty members in MIT's School of Science in salaries, office space, awards, resources, and inducements to turn down offers from other universities. It also said many female faculty members feel marginalized within their departments.

Published in a special edition of the school's faculty newsletter, the report is entitled "A Study on the Status of Women Faculty in Science at MIT."

Dean of MIT's School of Science Robert J. Birgeneau wrote in the report that he believed the discrimination was neither "conscious nor deliberate." According to Birgeneau, all the department heads have tried to treat women in their departments fairly.

"It's only when you look at aggregate data that through some accumulation of small things the women faculty ended up at a disadvantage," he said.

Birgeneau said he has received only positive feedback from the report. Several women faculty members have e-mailed him to say they are pleased that MIT has acknowledged its problems, he said.

MIT biology professor Nancy H. Hopkins '64, one of the original women to convince Birgeneau to investigate possible discrimination against women faculty members, said it took years for MIT's female faculty to address the issue.

"You knew something was wrong--you saw how other people were treated--and you began to see there was a pattern," Hopkins said. "But there were so few of us, isolated in separate departments and fields, that we didn't know how similar our experiences were."