On behalf of women everywhere, Unicode Consortium deserves two giant thumbs up emojis. That's because it just approved new emojis that represent women in roles other than just being a bride, princess or receptionist.
Just a few days before World Emoji Day on July 17, Google announced that the Unicode Technical Committee approved 11 new professional emojis that will be available in male and female options in all skin tones.
The new working women (and men) emojis include: a coder, teacher, mechanic, welder, farmer, scientist, chef, doctor, rock star, graduate and business woman.
This allows there to be female representation in various fields like health care, technology and the arts.
These new emojis provide better representation of the roles of women, while promoting gender equality. Now, the female emojis can be more than just a princess and are representative of real-world jobs.
To further diversify Google's emojis, the Unicode is also adding male and female versions of 33 existing emojis. That means that Android users can now emote using a female runner, weightlifter and cop, as well as a male getting a haircut.
These additions allow men to break out of their stereotypical roles as well and be included in more professions and activities.
Google first proposed a total of 13 gender diverse emojis back in May.
"Our proposal is to create a new set of emoji that represents a wide range of professions for women and men with a goal of highlighting the diversity of women's careers and empowering girls everywhere," Google wrote. "We believe this will empower young women (the heaviest emoji users), and better reflect the pivotal roles women play in the world."
From the 13, Unicode did not approve the assembly line worker or the dentist. Even though those two were denied, this new batch means that more than 100 new emojis are added to Unicode's library and will be able to be released for Android and iOS.
Google said the gender diverse emojis would be included in future versions of Android.
The company isn't the only one that has put gender equality on the table when it comes to various types of emojis. Facebook also released its own female emojis that are available in different skin colors for Messenger last month. These include a female cop, young girl and older woman. Users can also choose skin tone and hair color, with more emojis expected to be released over time.
Source: Google
