New icons representing professional women to be added to emoji keyboards
A rock star and farmer are two of 11 new emoji depicting professional women that Google will introduce to promote gender equality. (Google)
But to others, like Aly Pirbay, 15, it's actually a big deal that tech companies like Apple and Google are trying to ensure people from all different backgrounds can see images that represent who they are among the rows of random objects, facial expressions, hand signals, smiling poop and crying kitties.
Aly Pirbay,15, uses emoji in nearly all messages he sends. He thinks the introduction of diverse emoji is important. (Simran Singh/CBC)
"I think that it's great with the recent change of skin tones and putting gender equality and including these new different things [in emoji]," Pirbay told CBC News.
The latest push for emoji equality comes from Google. The internet giant recently announced it will introduce several new emoji to represent women working diverse careers.
"While there's a huge range of emoji, there aren't a lot that highlight the diversity of women's careers or empower young girls," Google said in a statement.
In May, Google proposed the creation of gender-inclusive career emoji to the Unicode Consortium, the non-profit organization that decides what new emoji will be available.
Google did so after critics spoke out about the lack of emoji representing professional women.
Feminine hygiene brand Always launched an online campaign for new characters that don't limit women to stereotypical female roles.
Amy Butcher, an author and assistant professor of English at Ohio Wesleyan University, wrote an op-ed for the New York Times about the problem back in March.
"Yes, there were women's faces, and tiny women's bodies. But for the women actually engaged in an activity or profession, there were only archetypes: the flamenco dancer in her red gown, the bride in her flowing veil, the princess in her gold tiara," she said.
Unicode responded to the appeals on July 14 when it announced its approval of 11 of Google's 13 proposed designs.
A female doctor, scientist, welder and mechanic are just a few of the new images. The new professional emoji will be available in a variety of skin tones and in male versions, too. However, it is still not known when these emoji will be available on our devices. Unicode will also add male and female versions of 33 existing emoji.
