Doctor Quits Stanford, Cites Sexism : Academia: The woman is a leading neurosurgeon and tenured professor. The medical school dean acknowledges that some men at the school are ‘insensitive.’

SAN FRANCISCO —  A leading woman neurosurgeon and tenured professor resigned from Stanford Medical School, citing a pattern of sexism and prompting the medical school dean to acknowledge Monday that some men at the prestigious school are “insensitive” toward women.

Dr. Frances Conley, 50, one of the few female brain surgeons in the nation, said male faculty members have used slides of Playboy centerfolds to “spice up” lectures. She charged that sexist comments are frequent, and that unsolicited “fondling occurs between house-staff and students.”

She said female students do not complain for fear of damaging their careers. In an Opinion Page article written for the San Francisco Chronicle, Conley wrote that she witnessed sexism firsthand, and said the school’s hierarchy never accepted her as an equal, “not because I lack professional competence, but because I use a different bathroom.”

She noted that her decision to quit was triggered by Dean David Korn’s appointment of another professor, a man, to lead the department of neurosurgery in which she had been a tenured member for 10 years.

“I decided I didn’t need to continue hearing myself described as ‘difficult,’ ” she wrote, noting that when she differed with other faculty members her views often were belittled as manifestations of premenstrual syndrome.

The new chair, Dr. Gerald Silverberg, and Conley are the only two tenured members in the department. Korn said he decided to appoint Silverberg after budgetary constraints forced him to call off a national search.

Conley’s remarks come at a time when the number of female medical students is at an all-time high. At Stanford, 37% of the medical students are women. About 14% of the medical school’s teachers are female.

Korn said the school is working to eradicate sexist attitudes that long have been part of a male-dominated profession. He noted that only two complaints of sexual harassment have been filed at the school in the seven years he has been dean.

Conley, who was born at Stanford and whose father taught there, said some male colleagues called her “honey” in the operating room and some fondled her legs under the table or made demeaning or sexual comments.

“The only reason I put up with it for as long as I did is I really wanted to advance,” Conley said. “You put up with a lot to try and be one of the crowd.”