The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: Moved to Chair (officer). After much-extended time for discussion, there is a reasonable clear consensus that the title should be moved from its current position, and Chair (officer) receives by far the most support least opposition among potential move targets. BD2412 T 23:50, 27 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Chairperson → Chairman – "Chairperson" has almost negligible usage compared to "Chairman" [2]. This page should be titled "Chairman" which is the indisputable common name of this article unless another term surpasses it in future. Besides, per WP:NATURALNESS, we should be using the term that readers are most likely to search for, which per Google trends [3] is also chairman, with "chairperson" again having almost negligible searches in comparison. Lastly, the term "chairman" is gender-neutral which you can see in the Oxford Dictionary definition. PadFoot2008 14:38, 16 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

• Pinging @Rreagan007, @SergeWoodzing, @Fyunck(click), @TaerkastUA, @Springee, @Netoholic, @Srnec, @Abote2, @Yair rand, @Amakuru, @MrClog, @Pudeo, and others. PadFoot2008 14:53, 16 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

• Move to Chair (officer). When talking about the generic title (as opposed to a specific chairman or chairwoman), the most usual and gender neutral term in 2024 is simply chair. Since that's ambiguous, we append a disambiguator, as we would with many many other topics. Using the relatively rarer term chairperson is IMHO nowhere near as good as using that common name, as I said in the previous RMs. If we can't finally rally around that sensible title, the I guess the proposal to go back to chairman is marginally better than the obscure chairperson, but I'd much prefer chair.  — Amakuru (talk) 15:22, 16 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

  Support Chair (officer) —⁠ ⁠BarrelProof (talk) 19:34, 16 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

• Strong support. "Chairperson" doesn't see anything resembling common usage. O.N.R. ^(talk) 15:29, 16 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

  This argument is actually flawed, because the term chairman isn't WP:PRECISE in describing the topic of this article. A chairman is (generally speaking) a chair of an organisation who's male. As such, because of the male-dominated world we live in, that's the term that appears most often in sources. I would have no problem describing a male chair as a chairman. But this article isn't just about that, it's about women who occupy that role top, sometimes called a chairwoman. As such, the name chosen should be *the most common that accurately describes the scope*, not just the most common vaguely related term. And chair dominates chairperson by a wide margin, hence why I favour it as the best option available to us.[4]  — Amakuru (talk) 17:10, 16 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

  Hello @Amakuru, there are two things I would like to mention here. First of all, there are five main criteria that determine an article title. One of them is 'naturalness', or the title that readers are most likely to search for, which is obviously "chairman". There is no reason to suggest that the term "chairman" does not cover the scope of this entire article. Besides WP:PRECISION is something completely different, and tells to not be more precise than necessary or alternatively be precise when there are multiple articles with same name. Secondly, the "-man" prefix in compound nouns is generally gender-neutral and refers to males and females alike. Similar to how tiger or lion refers to both the the entire species regardless of gender, or sometimes specifically a male of the species. PadFoot2008 17:40, 16 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

  In you saying that "A chairman is (generally speaking) a chair of an organisation who's male" I don't know where you get that. Chairman is used for both males and females in my circles... as is chair. Chairperson I haven't heard in years. Then again I only hear "fireman" when describing both sexes. It just depends on the job. The terms mailman, postman, and mail-carrier are all common for that occupation. But with chairman, we also say things like "the chairmanship is open" for this company. Fyunck(click) (talk) 19:21, 16 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

• Strong support per @Old Naval Rooftops A gendered term is more common, we're not here to right great wrongs. Killuminator (talk) 15:32, 16 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
• Support - Chairperson seemed to be a fad that had limited appeal. It's usually chairman or chair today. Even when this got moved to chairperson it was not a common term. Fyunck(click) (talk) 19:07, 16 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
• Support Wikipedia and its article naming is not the forum where feminism and gender equality are to be pushed through against policy, albeit worthy causes. --SergeWoodzing (talk) 19:08, 16 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
• Strong Oppose Chairman.

Weak Support Chairman Revised —В²C ☎ 20:35, 18 June 2024 (UTC) [reply]

Strong Oppose Chairman again, per persuasive arguments by Dohn joe and BarrelProof below. In particular, most of the relatively high usage of “Chairman” today can be attributed to most Chairs still being men. Chairman as a title is unacceptable. —-В²C ☎ 20:07, 21 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Strong Support Chair (officer) per Amakuru. Chairman IS commonly used, but only when the Chair is a man. Even when they’re a man, Chair is commonly used. Chairman in the generic sense is virtually unused in 2024. It’s an unacceptable title. —В²C ☎ 20:54, 16 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

"Chairman in the generic sense is virtually unused in 2024", What in the world do you mean? What's your source for that? "Chairperson" has negligible usage compared to "chairman". See Google trends here [5]. PadFoot2008 02:17, 17 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Really? Because I just did a search for "Chairman Susan" (just picking a random female name) and found numerous examples of chairman being used with a female name. Same with Rebecca, Ann, and Tiffany (even excluding uses of Tiffany as a last name). --User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 11:25, 17 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Okay. Chairman is still more used than I realized and is thus not unacceptable. But I still think Chair (officer) is a much better and less controversial title. —В²C ☎ 20:35, 18 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Does "chair" get used as a title? That is, can you say "Chair Richard Somethingorother announced that the committee..." or that "Chair Susan Whoziwatsis convened the meeting..."? I've seen constructions like "Board of Regents Chair Richard...", but that feels subtly different. --User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 17:18, 19 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

• Support - "chairman" is exactly as gender-neutral as "chairperson", but far more commonly-used even when referring to women in that position. -- Netoholic @ 11:08, 17 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
• Support - "Chairperson" was a fad that never really took off. Women who chair committees, boards, etc are quite often referred to as Chairman. --User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 11:27, 17 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
• Oppose chairman, it was just a fad from the 1900s. Chairperson was a fad from the 1970s. [6]. The current term is “chair”. Support Chair (officer). —SmokeyJoe (talk) 12:04, 17 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

  The graph this user has linked compares "chauvinism" and "chairperson". Like seriously? That's just low. This is the correct graph [7] and you can see "chairman" being used pretty commonly even in the late 1700s, and usage even before that. PadFoot2008 14:57, 17 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

• Support Chair (officer) - Can we find a term that is at least acceptable to all so we don't have a constant series of RfCs regarding the name? I do think chairman would be correct per COMMONNAME but I also think if we were to use it every 6 months there would be a new proposal to change the name. Chairman is not gendered by definition but is often viewed as gendered. Since the objective seems to be to find a truly general neutral term chair (officer) is probably the best option since it likely would do better than chairperson. That said, I'm somewhat torn because chairperson is clear in what we are talking about. If you read the word chairperson you would likely understand it to be the same as chariman or chairwoman or chair (officer). However, if you read "Chair" with nothing else it may not be clear we are talking about the position vs the furniture. This is one of those cases where I can can think of a good argument for 3 of the 4 possible options. At this point I would suggest finding the one that would be most stable. Springee (talk) 12:28, 17 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
• Strong support - chairman is, by far, is most common term used for the position. This would correct the title to fall in line with WP:COMMONNAME and WP:NATURALNESS. "Chairman" is also, in fact, already a gender-neutral term as both men and woman use the title "Chairman". Even the term "Chair" would be way better than "Chairperson", but I don't agree with "Chair" as it's just not as popular as "Chairman". – Handoto (talk) 20:06, 17 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
• "Strong" irritation (comment): Could we please just give our opinions as *support" or "oppose"? The "strong" and "weak" stuff only lends an atmospjere of ridicule to all this, and votes are not counted accordingly anyway. Please! Whether you are strong or weak makes no difference here. Here, we are all the same. --SergeWoodzing (talk) 15:31, 19 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

  When I close RM discussions I often take into account the strong and weak qualifiers. Especially when it frames the commentary that follows. If someone says “weak” I expect to see why it’s weak in their comment, and weigh accordingly. It’s a common practice that has been used for years. —-В²C ☎ 21:05, 19 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Oh, yes, just like US senators get up and shout "Strong yay" or "Weak nay". And that clinches our legislation quite often. I fergot. --SergeWoodzing (talk) 11:49, 20 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Ah, so you’re conflating !votes with votes. That explains much. В²C ☎ 20:01, 20 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

• Oppose per MOS:GNL. So, first: "Chairman" is gendered. "Chairperson" and "Chair (officer)" are not. So say reliable sources:

  • "the masculine title of “Chairman” as compared to its gender-neutral counterpart, “Chair.”"
  • "replacing occupational titles that contain a male-biased noun “man” (e.g., chairman) with a gender-neutral noun (e.g., chair)"
  • "Examples of this move toward gender-neutral language include “chairman,” “mailman,” and “fireman” changing to the gender-neutral terms “chair,” “letter carrier,” and “firefighter”"
  • "GENDERED Texts that uses words or phrases associated with binary gender, e.g. ‘he’, ‘she’, ‘he or she’, ‘chairman’,"

Next: our Manual of Style says: "Use gender-neutral language – avoiding the generic he, for example – if this can be done with clarity and precision." And it's not just us: the AP Stylebook says likewise, at least as of 2022: "In general, use terms such as chair or chairperson . . . unless the -man or -woman terms are specified by an organization. . . . While some -person constructions, such as chairperson and spokesperson, are commonly used, avoid tortured or unfamiliar constructions such as snowperson, baseperson or freshperson." Dohn joe (talk) 16:57, 20 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

There are some sources that claim that chairman is gendered. However, most WP:RS considered Chairman to be gender-neutral and it's a standard usage in English. Wikipedia is not a place to WP:ADVOCATE or push propaganda. We follow what is the most common usage among RS. Also it doesn't matter at all what the AP Stylebook says. Wikipedia is not owned by the Associated Press and is not required to follow it. "Chairperson" and "Chair" have negligible usage compared to Chairman. PadFoot2008 17:17, 20 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The use of "chairman" is declining, and the use of "chair" in particular is increasing: as this n-gram shows. And, AP aside, our own MoS says to use gender-neutral language when it is a reasonable option. "Chairperson" and "Chair (officer)" are also WP:CONSISTENT with titles like Police officer and Firefighter. They are better choices than "Chairman" based on WP policies and guidelines. Dohn joe (talk) 20:09, 20 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I don't think you understood me here. Most RS consider "chairman" to be gender-neutral. Also your ngram clearly shows that "chair" and "chairperson" are decreasing as well, while "chairman" has been stable since 2015 and is not decreasing. And, the ngram also shows that "chairperson" has negligible usage compared to "chairman". PadFoot2008 02:12, 21 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I understand that you feel that way, but it's no longer true. Some writers continue to use "chairman" generically, but most RSs say that "-man" constructs are gendered in contemporary English usage. I already cited several academic works and the AP style guide. See also:

• Collins: "The use of -man as the last element in compounds referring to a person of either sex who performs some function (anchorman; chairman; spokesman) has declined a great deal in recent years. Only if the reference is to a specific male person are such compounds still widely used"
• Oxford: "words for occupations and roles ending in -man, such as ... chairman, are increasingly being replaced by gender-neutral words: ... chair or chairperson. In order to avoid being considered either an unreconstructed sexist or incorrigibly last-century it is therefore advisable to use alternatives to the more traditional words when the gender of the person concerned is not relevant."
• Even Garner, who acknowledges that some still treat chairman as generic (using a 1967 example though) notes that chair as a gender-neutral term is fully accepted

Anyhoo, enough virtual ink on this issue for the moment.... Dohn joe (talk) 16:08, 21 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Btw, in case it wasn't clear, I would also Support Chair (officer). Dohn joe (talk) 21:36, 21 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Well yes but chair and chairperson have not come even close to replacing chairman as of now. Thus the article should stay at chairman, see we are not here for WP:RIGHTINGGREATWRONGS. PadFoot2008 18:09, 21 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Well yes but a lot of chairmen are men. If you discount the uses where the chairman is clearly a man, you probably won't have very many "chairmen" remaining, and "chair" could be the dominant recent term in gender-neutral usage. See this, for example. And this seems even more compelling. Ngrams do seem to show a very clear decline in the use of "chairman of the" from 1955 to 2014 (see here and here) and a rise in "chair of the" from about 1975 to 2000 (holding steady since). Here's another page from The Collins Dictionary: "1. The person in charge of a meeting or organization is referred to as the chair, or sometimes the chairperson. These words can be used to refer to either a man or a woman." "2. A chairman is a man who is in charge ... The male head of an organization is often referred to as its chairman." and "3. In the past, chairman was used to refer to both men and women, but it is now not often used to refer to a woman." A usage note for the corresponding dictionary entry says "Chairman can seem inappropriate when applied to a woman, while chairwoman can be offensive. Chair and chairperson can be applied to either a man or a woman; chair is generally preferred to chairperson". The list of usage examples in Collins includes three that couple "chairman" with "him", "his" and "he", but none of them use "her" or "she". —⁠ ⁠BarrelProof (talk) 19:29, 21 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Here is another Ngram using case-insensitive present tense. And here for case-insensitive past tense. —⁠ ⁠BarrelProof (talk) 22:26, 21 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

If you discount the uses where the chairman is clearly a man, you probably won't have very many "chairmen" remaining, and "chair" could be the dominant recent term in gender-neutral usage.

So, if we discount all usage with regard to men (which is still the dominant usage), it "could" be the "dominant recent term"? You're literally discounting the majority of its usage and asking people to accept your preferred "gender-neutral" term. You do realize you're excluding all men, right? That's not "gender-neutral". Buffs (talk) 16:14, 26 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

• Move to Chair (officer) per the suggestion above of some. Using "chair" by itself is common enough it's not really WP:RGW to think, as multiple dictionaries, [8] [9] [10], that you avoid "chairman" if you want to ensure you're not signifying a particular gender. I do not (as far as I know) have easy access to the full current OED entry for chair/chairman, but together the earlier reference in this discussion to Oxford A-Z of English Usage and When chairmen carried chairs quoting from the OED that "chair" is used as "an alternative for 'chairman' or 'chairwoman,' esp. deliberately so as not to imply a particular sex". Skynxnex (talk) 01:47, 24 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

  But "common enough" doesn't really cut it in an encyclopedia. Under almost all circumstances at Wikipedia if two things are equal we always go with the natural term, not a term with parentheses attached. And these terms aren't equal... chairman is used more often, and chairperson pretty much not at all. Fyunck(click) (talk) 04:09, 24 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

  But the Ngrams show that "chair" is more common than "chairman" – as shown here and here. —⁠ ⁠BarrelProof (talk) 05:39, 24 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

  That would be skewed as we all know ngrams can be. Chairman is much more common overall as with right here. You limited it to only one sex and this article is for an overall usage. Otherwise you might as well use this. Yours would also include childrens plays where someone was a tree and someone was a chair. Heck you could use "they were" and the only thing found was chairman right here. Everything else was mauled. Fyunck(click) (talk) 06:42, 24 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

  Well, yes, although of course "she" can be used in a sex-neutral way, like "chairman". (I doubt there are statistically very many instances of discussing children's plays where someone was pretending to be a physical object.) —⁠ ⁠BarrelProof (talk) 14:42, 24 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

  As we do not always use the absolute most common name for articles. I do think this is hard to balance options since "chairperson" feels not great and is less common, "chairman" sometime is being read as assuming a gender, while "chair" may not be the most absolute common. I feel given all the options "Chair (officer)" balances the different factors best; as WP:COMMONNAME says, When there are multiple names for a subject, all of which are fairly common, and the most common has problems, it is perfectly reasonable to choose one of the others. "Chair" meets the "fairly common" there and "chairman" does have a "problem" of commonly being read in many contexts as assuming a gender of the office holder (even if a minor problem compared to some). And "chair" seems significantly more common now than "chairperson".

  I was curious what Robert's Rules of Order has used for this role (I know it's specialized enough to just be of some interest but since it has a long history, looking at changes could be useful). The 1893 edition has 112 uses of "chair" and 201 for "chairman".[11] The 1943 Roberts Rules Of Order Revised seems to have 203 instances of "chair" and 126 of "chairman". Such as The Chair means the presiding officer, whether temporary or permanent. but If the member is entitled to the floor, as shown hereafter, the chairman “recognizes” him .... it is not necessary for the member to give his name after addressing the chair, as the presiding officer is termed, nor is it necessary for the chair to do more than bow.[12]

  The most recent version I can easily find is the 2011 edition of Robert's rules of order, newly revised, in brief: updated in accord with the eleventh edition of the complete manual. and has shifted the ratio further with 255 for chair and 41 for chairman. It has this interesting contrast The presiding officer may be elected specifically for the meeting, and is then called the chairman.* More commonly, he or she is elected to serve for a term of a year or more, with a title such as president. While actually presiding, the presiding officer is called "the chair." .... *"Chairman" is the long-established usage. Several variations—such as "chairperson" or "chair"—are now frequently used.[13] But I find the distinction about when Roberts now uses "chairman" vs "chair" interesting. Skynxnex (talk) 14:17, 24 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

• Move to Chair (officer) per above. And it's the best etymological fit to accept redirects and state lede bolds for the variations. It's a concept that transcends time but changed its clothes, so what. "~person" can be one of those redirects but this just isn't a good title. It's the iteration that nobody looks up. JFHJr (㊟) 04:27, 25 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

  And "person" is redundant isn't it? JFHJr (㊟) 04:34, 25 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

• Support Move to Chairman or Chair (officer) per above (in order of preference). "Chairman" is gender neutral (clearly annotated above). So is "Chair" (a significant number of people use that as well). We can retain our "gender neutral" preference without giving in to EVERY instance of the word "man" being excluded in favor of "person". To paraphrase George Carlin (who actually voiced preference for the contrary, but I digress...): "Sometimes they go too far. I don't think a manhole cover should be called a personhole cover. Manhours don't need to be personhours. That would make a ladies' man, a person's person...the kind of absurdity you'd find on Late Night with David Letterperson!" Buffs (talk) 15:16, 25 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]