"Chair" or "chairman?"

Solution 1:

Traditionally the word chairman was used irrespective of whether the incumbent was a man or a woman. But over the last few decades many people have tried to avoid words which include the morpheme man because they are seen as excluding women.

Two of the solutions which have been applied to chairman are chairperson and chair. Both are now in wide use, probably chair more commonly.

There are a few people who object to either of these uses: probably the only way to express it that will not upset anybody is to avoid the noun altogether:

He chaired the Department from 1995 to 1999

Edit

As jgbelacqua has pointed out, in the academic world the word chair existed as a post (professorship) long before the concerns I mentioned above. To refer to the holder of a chair as the Chair is simple metonymy, and well-established. This is different from outside academia, where chair did not exist in this sense, and so the use for a person came in as a neologism which some find awkward.

Solution 2:

With regard to the question, it could be right to use chair or chairperson, or possibly both. @Colin put it well -- you probably can't avoid upsetting someone unless you avoid the term altogether, but there will usually be a convention in place to guide you usage.

Nevertheless, there is plenty of precedent for chair by itself, so you need not feel as if you're bowing to some insidious and terrible force of political correctness.

If you regard the early 19th century as the start of the age of political correctness, it's possible that you will disagree.

To expand on my earlier comment ("The term Chair as in Department Chair is not at all unusual, and has been standard in many academic departments for a long time"), I thought I'd look at some historical usage of the term.

First, the metonymic use of chair to mean an authority is quite old. The OED gives one of the definitions and earliest examples of this use as

[3]. a. A seat of authority, state, or dignity; a throne, bench, judgement-seat, etc.

1393 J. Gower Confessio III. iv. 125 Ianus with double face In his chare hath take his place. b. Place or situation of authority, etc.

1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) Matt. xxiii. 2 Vpon the chaier of Moyses, scribis and Pharisees seeten.

Bishops, episcopal authority:

[4]. a. The seat of a bishop in his church; hence fig. episcopal dignity or authority. Obs. or arch.

1480 Caxton Chron. Eng. xl. 28
Seynt peter preched in antyoche and ther he made a noble chirche in whiche he sate fyrste in his chaier.

1591 Troublesome Raigne Iohn ii. sig. E3, Treads downe the Strumpets pride, That sits vpon the chaire of Babylon.

Here's a reference to professorship:

[6]. a. The seat from which a professor or other authorized teacher delivers his lectures.

c1449 R. Pecock Repressor (1860) 518 To be rad‥in the chaier of scolis.

1691 A. Wood Athenæ Oxon. II. 506
His prudent presiding in the Professors chair.

Continuing --

b. Hence: The office or position of a professor.

1816 Scott Antiquary III. ii. 39 Fighting his way to a chair of rhetoric.

1856 R. W. Emerson Eng. Traits xii. 210 Many chairs and many fellowships are made beds of ease.

1875 M. Arnold Ess. Crit. (ed. 3) Pref. p. x (note) The author had still the Chair of Poetry at Oxford.

[8]. The seat, and hence the office, of the chief magistrate of a corporate town; mayorship. past, above, or below the chair [[...]

1682 Eng. Elect. Sheriffs 26 Some people‥did so industriously stickle for Sir John Moor's Election to the Chair.

1714 London Gaz. No. 5261/4, The Aldermen below the Chair on Horseback in Scarlet Gowns.

Presiding Chairs!

[9]. a. The seat occupied by the person presiding at a meeting, from whence he directs its business; hence, the office or dignity of chairman of a meeting, or of the Speaker of the House of Commons.

^{In various phrases, as to take the chair, to assume the position of chairman, which in most cases formally opens a meeting; to put in the chair, to elect as chairman; in the chair, acting as chairman; to leave or vacate the chair, to cease acting as chairman, which marks the close of a meeting.}

1659 T. Burton Diary (1828) IV. 462, I move that your Speaker forbear the Chair.

1702 Clarendon's Hist. Rebellion I. iv. 233 The Committee of the Commons appointed Mr Pym to sit in the Chair.

Chair! Chair!

b. Often put for the occupant of the chair, the chairman, as invested with its dignity [...], e.g. in the cry Chair! Chair! when the authority of the chairman is appealed to, or not duly regarded; to address the chair, support the chair, etc. Now also used as an alternative for ‘chairman’ or ‘chairwoman’, esp. deliberately so as not to imply a particular sex.

1658–9 T. Burton Diary 23 Mar. (1828) 243 The Chair behaves himself like a Busby amongst so many school-boys‥and takes a little too much on him.

Other examples of metonymy which superficially resemble referring to people as objects : the crown, the board, the bar, the panel, the suits, the big guns, etc..