These Are the Emojis Every Working Woman Has Been Waiting For — But There's One Problem

Men can be police officers, private investigators and construction workers. Women can be princesses and brides and flamenco dancers, according to the current pool of emojis. Google wants to change that.

"Google wants to increase the representation of women in emoji and would like to propose that Unicode implementers do the same," Google employees wrote in a proposal. "Our proposal is to create a new set of emoji that represents a wide range of professions for women and men with a goal of highlighting the diversity of women's careers and empowering girls everywhere."

These include a female emoji representing the following industries: business, healthcare, science, education, technology, industry, farming, food service and music. 

It's about damn time. Google asks in the proposal to standardize these emojis by the end of 2016. About 6 billion emoticons or stickers are sent globally each day on messaging apps, according to Swyft Media, Digiday reported. That's why there have been movements pushing for same-sex couples and racially diverse emoji — the keyboard should reflect its users, as emojis are such an integral part of how we communicate. Google's objective with this emoji proposal is to reduce gender inequality. 

"We submitted this proposal to encourage the creation and standardization of new professional emojis, specifically focusing on increasing the representation of women," a Google representative told Mic in an email. 

And so, 13 professional emoji women were born. (Note: this proposal also calls for male emoji of the 13 proposed industries.)

There's just one issue: Check out how the business and health care emojis are wearing neckties. By dressing working women in men's clothes, Google suggests that masculinity is closely tied to professionalism and vice versa. Many women might opt to wear a tie to work, but it's more likely a fashion statement than a symbol of professionalism in the modern workplace. That blazer is enough.

But this is certainly a step in the right direction. We need professional female emojis. As stands, a woman in a gold crown, a veil or a spicy red dress are fun, but they are extremely limiting and misrepresentative of a progressive society. As Google workers note in the proposal, "We believe an egalitarian, sensitive, and compelling representation of gender in emoji is extremely important."

And to that I say: :person raising both hands in celebration: