Are emojis making your email subject lines gender biased? 🤔

OK… we’d better set the scene. Gender bias in marketing is a hot topic. Like super-hot. We’re not trying to claim marketers are warriors of social conscience, the conversations taking place are a reflection of the world around us. What matters to customers and consumers, ultimately matters to brand and marketing managers.

Whether it’s brand campaigns that appear to have been conceived, tested and signed off by snickering schoolboys or AI image generators that routinely depict everything from scientists to company directors as male, but nurses always as women – so much of marketing, from creative to tech platforms feels like it’s coming from a male point of view.

Aside from the reinforcement of negative stereotypes, as marketers we should be concerned about unconscious bias because we run the risk of alienating our audiences. Brands are increasingly at great pains to make sure their communications represent diverse perspectives whether that’s gender, race, sexual orientation or disability. But with all that effort, are brands still being gender biased, albeit accidentally?

One thing we’ve noticed is the use of emojis 🧐. Originating in Japan in the 1980s, ‘emoji’ is actually the world’s fastest growing language 🤯, with around 90% of the world’s population using them.

And do you know who uses them most? Women. 78% of women vs 60% of men say they frequently use emojis. But get this. Until as late as 2016 the emoji world was strangely male dominated. That’s when the Unicode Consortium – the people who decide what emojis should be adopted by the phone manufacturers and social platforms – decided to create male and female versions of many popular emojis.

But why? Pre-2016 the Consortium simply agreed which emojis should be adopted. It was the phone manufacturers and social platforms that decided to depict ‘runner’, ‘police officer’ and ‘spy’ – actually gender neutral terms – as men.

Today male, female and gender neutral options exist for all professions and athletes. It’s a great step forward. But in a world where gendered and non-gendered emojis exist, why are we still seeing email subject lines, social posts and push notifications that include only male emojis?

At best it’s thoughtless, at worst it’s naked bias. “No problem” you might think, “we’ll just use the gender neutral version then”. Fair. But take the gender neutral ‘runner’ 🏃🏼 – the default masculine view is so ingrained that any non-female depiction is almost universally read as male.

As marketers we’re not in a position to change this cultural viewpoint, but we are in a position not to unconsciously reinforce existing bias. So, what should we do? Firstly, if you know your recipients’ gender, use the relevant emoji. If you don’t know, consider avoiding gendered emojis altogether. Can you use smileys that are 100% non-gendered? Or can you express your idea with a completely neutral emoji?

Take a look at these example subject lines for a business that sells running equipment:

Female = The trails are calling 🏃‍♀️‍

Male = The trails are calling 🏃‍♂️

Neutral = The trails are calling 😤

Neutral = The trails are calling 👟

Neutral = The trails are calling 🏃‍♀️‍🏃‍♂️

And remember, recognising whether someone’s gender isn’t the only way you can personalise messaging. You can use their name:

<Name>, the trails are calling 😤

<Name>, the trails are calling 👟

<Name>, the trails are calling 🏃‍♀️‍🏃‍♂️

You can recognise their special status, if you have a loyalty scheme for example:

Get trail ready 😤 with your <Gold> discounts

Get trail ready 👟 with your <Silver> discounts

Get trail ready 🏃‍♀️‍🏃‍♂️ with your <Bronze> discounts

Or you could recognise the product they own:

Upgrade your <Product> and get trail ready 🏃‍♀️‍🏃‍♂️

It’s a small thing to some, but to others it can mean a lot. With a bit of thought it’s easy to avoid gender bias when using emojis in your email subject lines, social posts and push notifications – and if you have the opportunity to be more inclusive, why wouldn’t you?

Are emojis making your email subject lines gender biased? 🤔

If you’re looking for support with improving your email content, template builds or wider CRM strategy – you’ve come to the right place. Get in touch with our team for advice about how to optimise, elevate and transform your email marketing.