The great discrimination debate rages. I had a dicussion at work yesterday about the term chairman. Apparently that is discriminatry against women. I disagree.

The term chairman has nothing to do with gender. The focus on ‘man’ in chairman as being male is incorrect. It is from the latin manus (of the hand), the same root as manger, manual etc.

On the other hand (ooh that’s bad…) ‘man’ , denoting mankind, although also used for males, is from germanic roots.

For anyone that disagrees: Are we to write instruction womanuals? Are female labourers to be referred to as womanual labourers? Are their bosses womangers?

Get over it.