The History and Context

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The term “Chairman” according to the English encyclopedia Britannica, dates back to the mid-17th century as a compound word consisting of the combination of chair and man, which means an occupier of a chair of authority. In a corporate body, it signifies a member who is chosen to preside at board meetings. 

There is also the gender-neutral term “Chair”, which just like the word Chairman, dates back to the 17th century (so this is not a new concept or option - its 300 years old). 

A Chair is typically appointed by the board of an organisation, and may be full-time or part-time. The Articles of Association of a company or organisation provides for the appointment of a chair. 

Joe Saxton, Chair of Association of Chairs (who knew that was a thing!) states that onto the Chair falls a whole range of duties, which roles include the responsibility to manage board meetings and in consultation with the chief executive officer and the company secretary, to set the agenda for board meetings (Kosmin and Roberts, 2020). 

These roles according to Harvard Business Review (2018) are targeted at providing leadership to the board, enabling it to function as the highest decision-making body in the organization and therefore can be summarised in three main responsibilities: oversight, strategic advice and board leadership.

Gender-neutral descriptions started to replace masculine and feminine references to job titles in the early 60s, in the bid to avoid gender discrimination (Bearne, 2016). Over the years, support for traditional division of gender roles has seen a decline, (Park et al. 2013). 

In March 2022, there was a call on the UK government to drop the gendered term ‘chairman’. Leaders of some bodies like the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), Make UK, the Institute of Directors and the Confederation of British Industry point out that “chairman” was still used by Companies House as its default term for the model articles of association for new firms, which denotes it was being repeated in the documents for many businesses. Hence, the issue was raised for Companies House to use the neutral term ‘Chair’, urging ministers to bring forward legislation to use the neutral term “Chair” in the UK’s official corporate register (Partington, 2022). 

A case of course can be made for the removal of the gender reference to man or woman at the end of all job titles, particularly considering that some individuals present as non-binary. Though the Gender Recognition Act (2004) makes no provision for the recognition of non-binary genders, the law still accords them the legal protection from discrimination based on having or being perceived as having a “protected characteristic”, as defined in the Equality Act 2010 (Fairbairn et al, 2022).

In order to create a more inclusive and diverse workplace, where people are not discriminated or stereotyped based on their gender identity, the removal of gender from job titles is crucial. According to Siocon (2022), job titles appear very conspicuously on job postings, removing gender from job titles could entice candidates to read the rest of the job posting, which could attract more qualified candidates and mirror the reality of the roles.

According to research, the word ‘men’ in a job title can have a negative impact on some women’s perceptions of themselves and as such become a deterrent to them applying for the role (Ro, 2021). Jakiela and Ozier (2018) provide evidence to support that gender job titles impact on views of women on job roles which directly affect women’s labour force participation. This ultimately could result in gender inequality, prejudice, discrimination at work as well as impede women’s career progression (Tabassum and Nayak, 2021). Article 5 of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) provides for the change of gender stereotypes that perpetuate discrimination against women and limit their opportunities to achieve their full potentials. 

In conclusion, Ro (2021) suggests that simple changes to words or even terminology could lead to substantial changes in workplace gender balance. Again, plenty of social science research suggests that the language use at work does indeed encode gendered expectations in ways that may not be obvious to employers or employees, but feed into who applies for the role and who is hired, how we assess and promote people, and may even play a role in holding some women back (Ro, 2021). 

According to Judith Baxter, emeritus professor of applied linguistics at Aston University, the continuous, repetitive use of gender-neutral terms would assist to change people’s view of reality over time, and if neutral gendered words are used on most occasions, organisation will begin to see people and professions as non-gendered too (Bearne, 2016).

Literary research conducted by Chinwendu Anosike, literary references available on request.