Green Party councillors have won a vote at East Hants District Council to end the use of old-fashioned terms such as “Madam chairman.”
At its meeting in November 2024 Cllrs Ian James (Liss) and James Hogan (Horndean Downs) proposed a motion to change the council’s constitution so that it becomes gender neutral. Their motion was carried overwhelmingly. As a result, phrases which imply that maleness is the norm will be changed to phrases which do not specify a gender. So “chairman of the council” will become “chair of the council”. This will at last bring East Hants District Council into line with mainstream practice in today’s Britain – at least as regards this aspect of language use. Cllr Hogan explained: “The change will bring to an end the absurd expectation that we councillors should address a female colleague using bizarre phrases such as “Madam chairman.”
Cllr James, leader of the Green group on EHDC, said: “At my very first council meeting two years ago I was gobsmacked when the woman councillor chairing the meeting was called “chairman”. I could hardly believe that this sort of language was still being used. So I resolved then to get the council’s constitution changed.” On 24th April 2025 a full meeting of East Hants District Council finally voted to amend its constitution, consigning to ‘the dustbin of history’ outdated terms such as “chairman”, replacing them with gender-neutral language such as “chair”.
With only 2 Green councillors on a 43-strong council, this was a ‘David and Goliath’ challenge. But our Green councillors did it ! They won a majority of the votes.
Ian added: “It’s not an earth-shattering change. But change often comes in tiny steps. This is a tiny step for our council in the right direction for gender equality. And a commitment to gender equality lies at the heart of the Green Party’s vision.”