The Unicode Emoji Subcommittee just introduced 11 new emoji professions to the world of tiny text-people, each with inclusive skin tone and gender options.
Their design guidelines doc announces a farmer, welder, mechanic, health worker, scientist, coder, business worker, chef, student, teacher and rockstar. The additions come after Google called for representation of women in a variety of professions, not just princesses and hair-flippers. “We believe this will empower young women (the heaviest emoji users), and better reflect the pivotal roles women play in the world,” the Googlers said in their proposal. Thirty-three other emoji activities also get a gender upgrade, including female runners and male haircuts, according to TechCrunch.
Why having long hair is the default differentiator of gender for the emoji world is probably another story.
