Google helps win new roles for women -- in emoji form - CNET

The Unicode Emoji Subcommittee is making it possible for software to display 11 new professional emojis in both genders (and with a range of skin tones and hair colors available). What's more, they're adding a male or female counterpart to 33 emojis that already existed in only one gender. Now emoji men can get haircuts too!

Unicode never conceived emoji as being gendered, the organization said. "To get a greater sense of realism for these characters, however, vendors typically have picked the appearance of a particular gender to display," the emoji subcommittee wrote in its announcement Thursday. "This has led to gender disparities in the emoji that people can use." To help create emojis of both genders, they came up with a technical fix that lets programmers add alteate genders to emojis.

But Google hinted on its official blog that emojis aren't enough. "These new emoji are one of several efforts we're making to better represent women in technology, and to connect girls with the education and resources they need to pursue careers in STEM."