Google, which has always been a big advocate of gender equality in the workplace, now wants to extend the concept to the emoji as well. Four engineers from Google have submitted a report to Unicode, the organisation that develops emoji, in which they have suggested addition of new emoji representing women in different occupations.
Google wants to introduce a total of 26 emoji — 13 female and 13 male — representing men and women in different professions. Through the new additions, the company also wants emoji to better represent hardworking individuals across a variety of occupations and fields.
"We believe this will empower young women (the heaviest emoji users), and better reflect the pivotal roles women play in the world," the engineers wrote in their report.
According to a Social Times report, over 92 percent of those who are online use emoji, out of which 78 percent of women regularly use emoji. Only 60 percent of men, in contrast, use emoji as often.
The emoji Google proposes span across 11 industries, and feature women as businesswomen, doctors, scientists, engineers, scientists, factory workers and even rock stars. The suggested emoji are also accompanied by their male counterparts.
"We believe an egalitarian, sensitive, and compelling representation of gender in emoji is extremely important," the engineers wrote. "We would encourage other members of Unicode to join us in creating a system of emoji design that can accommodate a broader gender spectrum."
Unicode routinely accepts new additions to the list of emoji that are in turn used by developers in their programs.
