Goodbye Chairman, Hello Chair.
The Gendered Title Is Fading Away

The day before Advanced Micro Devices Inc. approved Chief Executive Officer Lisa Su’s bonus in February, the chipmaker scrubbed the gendered title of chairman from its bylaws, part of “technical, modernizing, clarifying and conforming changes.”

Su, who’s been CEO for almost 10 years, officially became chair, rather than chairman. AMD had already been calling her chair publicly, but she’d legally been chairman since she started leading the board in 2022. A few months before AMD’s title update, Intel Corp. did the same — but more explicitly: “Delete outdated references, utilize gender-neutral terms,” its filing said, striking through each erasure in red font. JPMorgan Chase & Co., Ford Motor Co., Starbucks Corp. and Netflix Inc., among others, have done the same.

What might seem like a small change to some is significant for others.

“I’m big on how words can make a difference,” Digital Realty Trust Inc. Chair Mary Hogan Preusse, whose title officially changed to chair from chairman last year, said in an interview. “Nomenclature is important.”

Digital Realty Trust was among scores of large US companies that adopted gender-neutral language over the past three years as public pressure to prioritize diversity, equity and inclusion grew. But that momentum is slowing during a time of conservative-led backlash to DEI policies at many American businesses and institutions — potentially curbing the trend before it hits a tipping point.

As recently as 2020, 88% of the S&P 500 — 438 companies — officially used “chairman,” even if their board chief was a woman. The number using “chair” or “chairperson” has more than tripled to at least 185 since then, according to a Bloomberg News analysis of more than 2,000 regulatory filings spanning two decades. The review mainly looked at bylaws that set internal rules and are filed publicly with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

About two-thirds of the 123 companies that updated the title since 2020 made the change without fanfare, either vaguely talking about “modernizing” like AMD or not noting it at all.

That discretion comes at a time when prominent businessmen including Elon Musk and investor Bill Ackman have been vocal critics of some DEI strategies. Some companies have opened up programs previously designed for minorities to a broader range of employees. Republican leaders have a history of lashing out at gender-neutral language, and the political furor surrounding Walt Disney Co.’s stance on Florida’s LGBTQ legislation has shown just how fraught it can be for companies to be viewed as “woke” less than four years after George Floyd’s killing.

All companies mentioned in this story either declined to comment or didn’t reply to a request for comment, except for Ford which said the change to “chair” provided clarity about its “inclusive and equitable culture.”

Despite the initial rush, adoption of gender-neutral language has declined steadily since early last year. Those using chair remain the minority, and January was the first month since June 2022 when no S&P 500 company ditched chairman. Some now list DEI as a “risk factor” in their annual reports, saying taking too much or too little action could hurt their business.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s part of the DEI backlash where people are like, let’s not kick this wasp nest right now,” Alicia Syrett, Digimarc Corp. Chair and founder of Madam Chair, a group of more than 250 woman chairs and directors at publicly listed companies, said in an interview.

But keeping the chairman title might also send the wrong signal in a business world where companies are vying for top female talent. Only 11% of the S&P 500 have a female chair. The index’s average board is just 34% female and parity isn’t expected for at least a decade.

“A young woman who has options might choose a company that said chair instead of chairman as an indication of their attitude toward women rising in the ranks,” Nancy Pelosi, who as House speaker in 2021 drove Congress to adopt gender-neutral language, said in an interview. “It’s a signal, as well as a title.”

Corporate America still has some catching up to do. States in the US embarked on much wider and more detailed gender-neutral projects to reform existing laws as early as the mid-1990s. Washington mandated the use of gender-neutral language in new laws in 1983, and in 2013 passed legislation to change words like “penmanship” to “handwriting” and “watchmen” to “security guards.” The European Parliament adopted gender-neutral guidelines in 2008.

The change is also inclusive for transgender and non-binary people, although some companies did keep pronouns like “she” and “he” in their bylaws even when moving away from “chairman.”

The more valuable a company is, the more likely it is to have jettisoned the chairman moniker. Only 37% of the S&P 500 have made the change, but six of the so-called Magnificent 7 have done so. The exception: Nvidia Corp., which kept chairman when it updated its bylaws last month. Of the 15 largest publicly traded companies in the US, all but four — Berkshire Hathaway Inc., Walmart Inc., Exxon Mobil Corp., and Nvidia — use “chair” or “chairperson.”

In the male-dominated finance industry, which is rolling back DEI initiatives, the three largest banks — JPMorgan, Bank of America Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co. — have all adopted “chair.” Citigroup Inc., with a female CEO, still uses “chairman,” as do Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Utilities, materials, and communications are the only three sectors where more than half of S&P 500 companies have made the change. The technology sector isn’t far behind at 44% gender-neutral.

Energy is the lowest at 24%. Among the 15 most-valuable oil and gas companies, only Schlumberger NV uses “chair.” Consumer companies are also less likely to have changed, including household names like McDonald’s Corp.

Not all women played an active role in their title change.

“I appreciated it. I didn’t ask for it,” Lydia I. Beebe, Chair of EQT Corp., said in an interview, “I think our corporate governance folks that are responsible for the board material took it on.”

Many advocates say eliminating the male designation is inevitable, but the road will be bumpy, said Madam Chair’s Syrett.

“It’s kind of like a pendulum swinging,” she said. “We swung far in the DEI direction, and it’s swinging back now, but I don’t know where it stabilizes.”