New Emojis Promote Gender Equality

Apple has added hundreds of new emojis to their lineup. Image: Mashable. 

Monday brought the newest wave of  politically correct emojis as Apple rolled out their iOS 10.2 software update for the iPhone.

TechCrunch highlights female occupations.

Various tech companies and organizations have made efforts to develop emoji that are more gender, race and ethnic inclusive to cater to and represent a broader range of people, activities and interests.

Time Magazine reports that back in May of this year a group of Google employees proposed a new set of "gender-diverse" emoji, followed by Facebook's new Messenger options in June.

Their proposal suggested adding the new female emoji to "better reflect the pivotal roles women play in the world."

Google reported that Unicode Emoji Subcommittee agreed in July to add 11 new professional emoji, in both male and female options and with all the skin tones.  Google indicated the proposed emoji could be "included in future platform versions" and they arrived last week with the new Android 7.1.1 rollout.

Apple's emojis have had skin modifying options since early 2015 but this week's update features "more diverse characters and new professions"  like teacher, scientist and firefighter, (with both male and female options) as well as more updates for the people-themed emojis, for the first time including a pregnant woman.

Whether on Apple or Android platforms, one can now send texts that feature female farmers, mechanics, scientists, chefs, teachers, welders and more- in an accurate skin tone and hair color.

Google celebrated the move toward gender equality in its July announcement: "We hope these updates help make emoji just a little more representative of the millions of people around the 🌎 who use them.".

For a complete list of all the new emojis and changes, check out the Emojipedia.

Via Google blog.