A Cambridge lecturer says colleagues should refrain from using terms like brilliant, genius and flair, as they could alienate female students. Dr Lucy Delap, deputy director of history and policy at Cambridge, said these terms were vague and carried assumptions of gender inequality.
Dr Delap said female students were often less likely to project themselves into such categories. She said a "male-dominated environment" at Oxbridge must be challenged.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Dr Delap said: "Students who're arriving at an Oxbridge college can still find it a bit of a male-dominated environment.
"If you look at just something as simple as the art on the walls of a college, they're often by men and they depict men and often they're white men as well.
"We think that a more plural environment would encourage a wider range of people being able to imagine themselves as powerful figures, as success stories, as excelling in academic terms."
In 2015-16, 31% of women students gained firsts in history at Cambridge compared with 39% of men. Dr Delap's comments come a month after a group of 14 black undergraduates at the university posed for a photograph aimed at breaking down stereotypes of the institution.
The group posed for several images that were shared on social media in an attempt to encourage more black students to apply to Cambridge.
In April, Oxford University announced it was putting up more portraits of women in its buildings.
It said it wanted to redress the balance from the university's walls being lined with pictures of "dead white males" by adding more women and ethnic minorities.
