Chairman - Terminology

Terminology

Other terms sometimes used for the office and its holder include chair, chairperson, chairwoman, presiding officer, president, moderator and convenor. The chairman of a parliamentary chamber is often called the speaker.

The term chair is often used in lieu of chairman, in response to criticisms that using chairman is sexist. Although many experts maintain that use of the term chairman in not sexist because it is meant to encompass both genders, feminists argue otherwise, saying that using an andro-centric generic to stand in for all humans is asymmetrical and therefore biased, because men are allowed to represent all people while women are not. Feminists also say that psycholingual studies find that when people are asked to imagine which gender is represented by a male-specific term, they are likelier to choose men than women.

Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage says that although the gender-neutral "chair" is sometimes disparaged as a "makeshift word from the 1960s," it is commonly used today, and has been used as a substitute for chairman since the middle of the 17th century, with its earliest citation in the Oxford English Dictionary dated 1658-9, only four years after the first citation for chairman. In his 1992 State of the Union address, then-U.S. President George H.W. Bush used chairman for men and chair for women. A 1994 Canadian study found the Toronto Star newspaper referring to most men as chairman, and most women as chairperson or chairwoman. The Chronicle of Higher Education uses chairman for men and chairperson for women. An analysis of the British National Corpus found chairman used 1,142 times, chairperson 130 times and chairwoman 68 times. The National Association of Parliamentarians does not approve using "chairperson". The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and United Press International all use chairwoman or chairman for women, and forbid use of chair or chairperson except in direct quotations. In World Schools Style debating, male chairs are called Mr. Chairman and female chairs are called Madame Chair. The FranklinCovey Style Guide for Business and Technical Communication, as well as the American Psychological Association style guide, advocate using chair or chairperson, and never chairman. The Oxford Dictionary of American Usage and Style says "the nonsexist forms are gaining ground and may well prevail within the next couple of decades." It advocates chair for both men and women.

In the United States, the presiding officer of the "lower" house of a legislative body, such as the House of Representatives, is frequently titled the Speaker, while the "upper" house, such as the Senate, is commonly chaired by a President.

A vice-chairman (or deputy chairman), subordinate to the chairman, is sometimes chosen to assist the chairman and to serve as chairman in the absence of the chairman, or when a motion involving the chairman is being discussed. In the absence of the chairman and vice chairman, groups sometimes elect a chairman pro tempore to fill the role for a single meeting.

The word chair can refer to the place from which the holder of the office presides, whether on a chair, at a lectern, or elsewhere. During meetings, the person presiding is said to be “in the chair”, the person is also referred to as “the chair.” Parliamentary procedure requires that members address the “chair” rather than the “chairman”, or by using a person's name. This is one of many customs intended to maintain the presiding officer's impartiality and insuring an objective and impersonal approach.

Riddick's Rules of Procedure, among others, claim an etymology of chairman as derived from the Latin manus, or "hand", and use this to claim gender-neutrality for the word. Some etymologists consider this to be incorrect, and many dictionaries claim that the word is from "chair" (a seat or office of authority) and "man", a person. A further derivation could be from the Latin 'mens' (genitive mentis) = 'mind' making the meaning 'chief thinker', which is gender-neutral.