Emojis are replacing Barbies as the battleground where the fight over the portrayal of women is being waged.
A group of Google employees is pushing for 13 new emojis to be approved with a “goal of highlighting the diversity of women’s careers and empower girls everywhere,” according to their proposal submitted to the Unicode Consortium this week.
“No matter where you look, women are gaining visibility and recognition as never before,” the developers said in a its proposal. “Isn’t it time that emoji also reflect the reality that women play a key role in every walk of life and in every profession?”
As of now, emojis depicting women are overwhelmingly stereotypical: There’s nail painting and hair grooming; there’s flamenco dancing and twin burlesque bunnies. Men, meanwhile, are cops and doctors and athletes, as Always pointed out as part of their “Like a Girl” campaign. Google’s proposal includes doctors, farmers, graduates and professors for both sexes. There’s even a David Bowie tribute emoji.
Making unicode emoji less basic with 13 true-to-life representations of professional women: https://t.co/aSOBFkKMGa pic.twitter.com/BfKMSSXgpg
— Google Design (@GoogleDesign) May 11, 2016
Unicode Consortium is currently mulling which emojis will be allowed in its next batch, due to arrive on people’s phones in mid-2017. However, the Googlers might have an advantage since the Consortium’s president, Mark Davis, is also a Google employee.
More in Marketing
Future of Marketing Briefing: Memes used to be a joke. Now they’re a strategy
This Future of Marketing Briefing covers the latest in marketing for Digiday+ members and is distributed over email every Friday at 10 a.m. ET. More from the series → Last month, a U.S. Special Forces soldier was indicted for insider trading — not on stocks, but on a prediction market. He had detailed knowledge of […]
Digiday+ Research: Marketers’ AI use rises, but tech skills stall
Marketers’ adoption of AI technology has risen significantly in recent years, but training employees on using these tools lags behind overall adoption.
Possible expands to Lisbon in 2027, keeping its focus on marketing, tech, culture and creativity
Digiday caught up with Carolina Cespedes of GoGo Squeez, Remy Stiles of agency Kepler and Oz Etzioni of Clinch, as well as Possible’s co-founder and owner.