Not many people have noticed this but Facebook recently made a change which has sparked cheers from gender equality advocates the world over.
Just take a look at the “Friends” icon which is on the right upper corner of your Facebook page. The image originally had a male silhouette in the front with a female silhouette behind it. But now, both these silhouettes are standing by each other’s side. Some people even say that the woman’s silhouette is slightly ahead on the males.
This certainly isn’t something small as far as gender equality advocates are concerned, especially since it is on a platform which caters to more than 1.4 billion people.
This is not the only change either. The “Groups” icon has also been changed to show a women in the middle with a man on either side. This icon earlier had a man in the center with a woman on one side and another man on the other.
These changes are a result of Caitlin Winner, Facebook’s design manager who noticed these gender discrepancies as well as the fact that the woman’s shoulder was being cut off by the man in the icon. This prompted her to draw the shoulder in. And this only made her go deeper & deeper into the whole design until it finally became a bigger redesign than was anticipated.
Caitlin also changed the hairstyles on the man and woman in the “Friends” icon. But this wasn’t what attracted the most attention. The most attention was given to the more prominent positioning of the woman in the icon.
This is a welcome change for a corporation which has been accused of not being inclusive in the workplace as far as hiring is concerned. Around 69 % of the work force in the company is male.
These changes are going to take effect on Facebook worldwide. The company even made some changes to its logo design.
