Redesigned iOS Emojis Show Women Playing Sports And Men Pampering Themselves

The new emojis roll out in a developer preview today and to Apple device users in the fall.

Like men, women also surf, cycle, and swim. But unlike men, women didn't have emojis showing them surfing, cycling, and swimming — until now.

In the developer preview of iOS 10, released today, Apple has included over 100 new emojis, including a bunch of exciting new emojis that previously only came in one option: male. They include female surfers, cyclists, swimmers, as well as female police officers, female construction workers, and female private investigators.

These new gender options are the latest in an effort to make emojis better represent the full spectrum of smartphones users — meaning just about everyone. iOS 9.1, released last October, included a range of skin colors. And earlier this month, the Unicode Consortium, the standards organization that regulates and sanctions new emojis, accepted a Google proposal to represent a broader range of women's careers.

And the push for gender equality goes both ways. Now, in addition to female versions of previously male-only emojis, Apple has added male versions of several previously female-only ones. They include a man receiving a haircut and a man receiving a scalp massage.

If you're an Apple user, you'll gain access to the new emojis — which also include a rainbow flag and a water pistol in place of the old revolver — when iOS 10 is released to the public this fall.

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