Woman Emoji
U+1F469:woman:Skin tonesAbout Woman ðĐ
Woman () is part of the People & Body group in Unicode. Added in Unicode E0.6. Type on GitHub and Slack to use it. Click copy above to grab it, paste it anywhere.
Works in iMessage, WhatsApp, Discord, Slack, Instagram, Twitter, Gmail, and every app that supports Unicode. Pick a skin tone above to customize it.
Meaning varies across cultures, see cultural notes below.
Scroll down for the full story: meaning, trends, combos, and more.
How it looks
What does it mean?
An adult woman. ðĐ is the female counterpart to ðĻ and one of the four age-gender pairs that shipped with the founding Unicode 6.0 release in October 2010: ðķ/ðĶ/ð§, ðĻ/ðĐ, ðī/ðĩ. Across every major platform, ðĐ is drawn with longer hair than ðĻ, a trace of makeup (varies by vendor), and the same adult proportions. The hair is the gender signal. The Apple design in particular gave ðĐ a notable auburn bob that persisted for years.
Like ðĻ, ðĐ is one of the most structurally important emoji in Unicode. It's the base codepoint for dozens of profession ZWJ sequences (ðĐââïļ, ðĐâðŧ, ðĐâðģ, ðĐâð, ðĐâðŦ) and the anchor for family compositions (ðĐâð§, ðĐâðĶ, ðĐâðĐâð§). When those profession emojis arrived in Emoji 4.0 (2016), they were the first "parallel" feminine profession emojis in Unicode â before that, "doctor" was just ðĻââïļ with the implicit male default.
ð§ Person arrived in Emoji 5.0 (2017) to give Unicode a gender-neutral adult base, and Apple's iOS 13.2 in October 2019 redrew 265 designs so ð§-based sequences could displace many ðĻ/ðĐ-based ones in neutral contexts. The new iOS keyboard offers woman/person/man as a three-way selector for most people emojis. ðĐ kept her codepoint and her role; what changed was that she stopped being one of only two options.
Supports all five Fitzpatrick skin-tone modifiers (ðĐðŧ ðĐðž ðĐð― ðĐðū ðĐðŋ) and the 2018 hair-component modifiers: ðĐâðĶ° red hair, ðĐâðĶą curly, ðĐâðĶģ white, ðĐâðĶē bald.
In couple content, ðĐ is "my wife," "my girlfriend," "my woman" in the exact parallel of how men use ðĻ. Paired with âĪïļ, it's the shorthand for affectionate partner posts: "my ðĐ," "appreciation post for this ðĐ," "lucky to have this ðĐ in my life." It does heavy lifting in couple-content captions on Instagram and TikTok.
The mom-content lane is enormous. ðĐâð§ (mom and daughter) and ðĐâðĶ (mom and son) are the core emoji for #MomLife, #MomGoals, and related tags. For Mother's Day, ðĐ paired with ð·, âĪïļ, ðĩ, or ð is the most common combo.
Professional ZWJ sequences are where ðĐ does its most culturally loaded work. ðĐâðŧ (woman technologist), ðĐââïļ (woman health worker), ðĐâðŽ (woman scientist), ðĐâð (woman astronaut), ðĐââïļ (woman judge) are used heavily in women-in-STEM content, in women's-ERG Slack channels, and in advocacy around gender representation in traditionally male-dominated fields. Before 2016, none of these existed as emoji â "doctor" was just ðĻââïļ â so ðĐ-led professions are explicit gender representation that users actively chose.
The girlboss aesthetic and women's empowerment content leans on ðĐ with ðž, ð , ð
, â, or ðŠ. The girlboss label has become more ironic over time ("girlboss, gaslight, gatekeep") but the emoji is still in heavy rotation for any "women supporting women" content.
ðĐ also narrates women in tweets and threads: "the ðĐ in front of me in line," "every ðĐ I know," "me and the ðĐs." This is the English-internet narration use, less common in other languages.
An adult woman. One of the four original age-gender emojis from Unicode 6.0 (2010). Used to describe women generically, as a relationship shorthand ("my ðĐ"), in mom and Mother's Day content, and as the base codepoint for dozens of profession and family ZWJ sequences (ðĐâðŧ, ðĐââïļ, ðĐâð§).
The Age and Gender Matrix
Infancy
Childhood (roughly 2-10)
Adulthood
Elderhood
What it means from...
Between friends, ðĐ often narrates a specific woman ("the ðĐ at work said X") or tags the group ("me and the ðĐs at brunch"). Less common as a direct address than ð§ is.
Between partners, ðĐ is an affectionate "my woman" shorthand in couple content. Usually with âĪïļ. Rarely possessive in a red-flag way in this register â it's been standard couple-emoji for over a decade.
In family chats, ðĐ is mom, stepmom, or aunt. In ZWJ sequences (ðĐâðĶ, ðĐâð§), it's the standard single-mom composition. Mother's Day messages lean on ðĐâĪïļ from the kids.
At work, ðĐâðŧ, ðĐââïļ, ðĐâðŽ show up in Slack avatars, women's-ERG channel emoji, and in advocacy content. Standalone ðĐ is less common. Professional ZWJ sequences do the most work here.
From a stranger's post, ðĐ usually marks the content's subject (a woman did X, women do Y). In a dating bio, ðĐ often signals the profile is a woman; paired with kids' emoji, it signals "I'm a mom."
Flirty or friendly?
ðĐ isn't a flirty emoji on its own. Between partners it's affectionate ("my ðĐ"). Between strangers it's descriptive. The flirty-reading cases exist but are context-specific and require the rest of the message to do the work, ðĐ alone is too literal to carry romance.
- âĒ"My ðĐ" from a partner: affectionate claim, standard couple-speak.
- âĒðĐ + âĪïļ in a caption with two adults: couple content, almost always publicly affectionate.
- âĒðĐ alone from someone you're not dating: usually narrative ("that ðĐ at the party"), not flirty.
- âĒðĐâðĶ / ðĐâð§ in a dating bio: "I'm a mom." Read the rest of the profile.
- âĒBetween platonic friends, ðĐ is almost always descriptive, not romantic.
Not on its own. In couple content, "my ðĐ" with âĪïļ is warmly affectionate. In descriptive tweets ("the ðĐ at the counter"), it's neutral narration. Calling an adult woman ðĐ flirtatiously requires the rest of the message to carry the romance, the emoji alone is too literal.
Emoji combos
Origin story
ðĐ, like ðĻ, was inherited. The glyph came from the Japanese carrier emoji sets (DoCoMo, KDDI, SoftBank) that Unicode standardized in Unicode 6.0 (October 2010). The Japanese carriers drew their woman character with long hair, a soft face, and sometimes a small pink/red mouth â the gender cues were common to the manga-inspired pictograph tradition. Unicode adopted the character unchanged.
For the first six years, ðĐ was mostly used as a standalone emoji or in the narrow family sequences that existed in the 2010 set (ðĻâðĐâð§âðĶ is the most famous). The big shift came in Emoji 4.0 (2016), which introduced parallel profession emojis for women. Before 2016, there was no ðĐââïļ â the health-worker emoji was just ðĻââïļ by default. Emoji 4.0 added ðĐ-based versions of health worker, cook, teacher, farmer, factory worker, technologist, scientist, and a dozen more. This was the first explicit correction to the male-default assumption.
Paul Hunt's 2016 proposal L2/16-317 added ð§ Adult in 2017 so Unicode could also offer a neutral base. Jennifer Daniel, who joined the Emoji Subcommittee in 2018, pushed vendors to redraw profession emojis to default to ð§ when gender is unspecified. Apple's iOS 13.2 in October 2019 redrew 265 designs along those lines.
ðĐ didn't lose any ground in that shift. The ðĐ-led professions are still in heavy use (they represent explicit feminine representation, which is the whole point), and standalone ðĐ is still the go-to for couple and family content. What did change: Unicode stopped treating ðĻ and ðĐ as the only two options in every composition.
Approved in Unicode 6.0 (October 2010) as WOMAN, inherited from Japanese carrier emoji sets. Added to Emoji 1.0 in 2015. Skin-tone modifiers arrived in Emoji 2.0 (2015). Parallel profession ZWJ sequences (ðĐââïļ, ðĐâðŧ, etc.) shipped in Emoji 4.0 (2016) to correct the male-default profession gap. Hair-component modifiers (red, curly, white, bald) arrived in Emoji 11.0 (2018).
Women Professions Added in Emoji 4.0 (2016)
Design history
- 2010ðĐ approved in Unicode 6.0 as U+1F469, inherited from Japanese carrier setsâ
- 2015Emoji 2.0 ships Fitzpatrick skin-tone modifiersâ
- 2016Emoji 4.0 adds parallel women profession sequences (ðĐââïļ, ðĐâðŧ, ðĐâðģ, etc.), correcting the male-default profession gapâ
- 2016Paul Hunt submits L2/16-317 proposing gender-inclusive alternativesâ
- 2017ð§ Person ships in Emoji 5.0, giving Unicode a neutral adult alternativeâ
- 2018Emoji 11.0 adds hair-component modifiers for ðĐ: ðĐâðĶ° red, ðĐâðĶą curly, ðĐâðĶģ white, ðĐâðĶē baldâ
- 2019iOS 13.2 redraws 265 designs, introducing ð§ defaults but keeping ðĐ-specific professionsâ
- 2020ð§ââïļ Woman: Beard added in Emoji 13.1, documenting that beards aren't gender-lockedâ
Around the world
In English-speaking Instagram and TikTok, ðĐ does heavy work in couple and mom content. "My ðĐ" is standard boyfriend/husband-caption language. Women-in-STEM professions (ðĐâðŧ, ðĐâðŽ) are used more in advocacy than in everyday description.
In Japanese-language content, ðĐ is used more neutrally and less affectionately. Japanese emoji culture prefers role-specific emojis (ðĐâðģ for a cook) in context and keeps standalone ðĐ for narrative description. Mother's Day in Japan (second Sunday of May, same as US) leans on ðĐ with ð· similarly.
In gendered-language internet cultures (Spanish, French, Arabic, Russian), ðĐ is used more than ð§ because the language already carries gender. The surrounding sentence does the work that ð§ does for English speakers.
In the Middle East and South Asia, ð§ Woman with Headscarf sits alongside ðĐ as the default woman emoji in many contexts. Rayouf Alhumedhi's 2017 proposal explicitly argued that many women internationally needed representation that ðĐ alone didn't provide.
In women's empowerment content, the girlboss aesthetic is heavily English-internet and US/UK-coded. In other cultures, the equivalent ðĐ-led content tends to lean more on profession-specific emojis (ðĐââïļ, ðĐâðŽ) than on the briefcase-and-blazer vocabulary.
Until Emoji 4.0 (2016), profession emojis (doctor, cook, scientist) only existed in male versions. Unicode shipped ðĐ-led parallel professions in 2016 as an explicit correction, following advocacy that pointed out the glaring gap. It's one of the cleaner examples of emoji representation becoming less male-default.
Depends on tone. The girlboss aesthetic was sincere from roughly 2015-2020 and has been widely ironized since 2022 ("girlboss, gaslight, gatekeep"). Using ðĐðž straight in 2026 reads slightly dated but not offensive. If you want to signal irony, the rest of the caption needs to do that work.
Often confused with
ð§ is the gender-neutral adult. ðĐ is specifically female-coded. Use ðĐ when gender matters (wife, mom, women-in-STEM); use ð§ when it doesn't. After iOS 13.2 (2019), many profession emojis default to ð§.
ð§ is the gender-neutral adult. ðĐ is specifically female-coded. Use ðĐ when gender matters (wife, mom, women-in-STEM); use ð§ when it doesn't. After iOS 13.2 (2019), many profession emojis default to ð§.
ð§ is a girl (2-10 years old). ðĐ is an adult. The visible difference is hairstyle, proportions, and facial softness. Don't use ð§ for adult women unless you're leaning into "just a girl" meme territory.
ð§ is a girl (2-10 years old). ðĐ is an adult. The visible difference is hairstyle, proportions, and facial softness. Don't use ð§ for adult women unless you're leaning into "just a girl" meme territory.
ðĩ is an older woman (silver hair, sometimes glasses). ðĐ is a working-age adult. Use ðĩ for grandmother content, ðĐ for adult-mom and partner content.
ðĩ is an older woman (silver hair, sometimes glasses). ðĐ is a working-age adult. Use ðĩ for grandmother content, ðĐ for adult-mom and partner content.
ðĻ is an adult man, the gender-paired counterpart to ðĐ. Together they anchor mixed-gender family and couple sequences. Hair length is the visible gender distinction across most vendors.
ðĻ is an adult man, the gender-paired counterpart to ðĐ. Together they anchor mixed-gender family and couple sequences. Hair length is the visible gender distinction across most vendors.
ðļ is a princess (crown, stylized). ðĐ is a regular adult woman. Princess content is often ironic or fairytale-themed; ðĐ is the baseline.
ðļ is a princess (crown, stylized). ðĐ is a regular adult woman. Princess content is often ironic or fairytale-themed; ðĐ is the baseline.
ðĐ is specifically an adult woman. ð§ is the gender-neutral adult added in Emoji 5.0 (2017). Use ðĐ when gender is the point (women-in-STEM, wife content, mom posts); use ð§ when it isn't. Apple's iOS 13.2 (2019) added ð§-based defaults alongside ðĻ/ðĐ ones.
ðĐ is an adult woman. ð§ is a girl (roughly 2-10). The visible difference is hairstyle, proportions, and facial softness. Using ð§ for an adult is either ironic ("just a girl" meme) or infantilizing.
Do's and don'ts
- âUse ðĐ for affectionate partner content and specific adult women
- âPair ðĐ with âĪïļ or ðĨđ for sincere couple-caption work
- âUse ðĐ-led professions (ðĐââïļ, ðĐâðŧ) for women-in-field representation
- âApply skin-tone and hair-component modifiers when relevant (ðĐð―âðĶą, ðĐðŧâðĶģ)
- âUse ð§-led sequences in inclusive or gender-unspecified professional contexts
- âDefault to ðĐ-based professions in inclusive content when ð§ is more accurate
- âUse ðĐ for a teen or young girl, use ð§ or ð§ for pre-adult
- âConfuse ðĐ with ðĩ (old woman); ðĩ is grandmother-specific
- âUse ðĐ in a possessive way toward someone you don't actually know, it reads different from "my woman" between partners
Caption ideas
Aesthetic sets
Fun facts
- âĒðĐ is one of the four original age-gender emojis from Unicode 6.0 (2010): ðĐ ðĻ plus ðķ, ðĶ/ð§, ðī/ðĩ. All inherited from Japanese carrier emoji libraries with little redesign.
- âĒEmoji 4.0 (2016) was the first release with parallel women profession emojis. Before that, "health worker," "cook," and "teacher" all defaulted to ðĻ. This was Unicode's explicit acknowledgment that the male-default was a problem.
- âĒðĐâðŧ (woman technologist) shipped in Emoji 4.0 (2016) and immediately became the icon of #WomenInTech advocacy. Before 2016, "technologist" was just ðĻâðŧ in every Unicode spec.
- âĒHair-component modifiers for ðĐ arrived in Emoji 11.0 (2018): ðĐâðĶ° red, ðĐâðĶą curly, ðĐâðĶģ white, ðĐâðĶē bald. The bald option was specifically requested by cancer-survivor communities years before it shipped.
- âĒApple's iOS 13.2 in October 2019 redrew 265 designs, most of which added ð§-based alternatives. ðĐ-specific professions were preserved intentionally because they represent explicit feminine representation, not an implicit assumption.
- âĒð§ââïļ Woman: Beard was added in Emoji 13.1 (2020), documenting that beards aren't gender-locked. It was one of the quieter but more thoughtful gender-representation decisions in Unicode's 2020 release.
- âĒðĐ is the base codepoint for roughly 30 profession ZWJ sequences in the current standard, plus many family and couple compositions including ðĐââĪïļâðĐ (lesbian couple) and ðĐââĪïļâðĻ (mixed-gender couple, since 2016).
Common misinterpretations
- âĒðĐ doesn't automatically mean "mother" or "mom." The ZWJ sequences ðĐâð§ and ðĐâðĶ do that. ðĐ alone is just "an adult woman."
- âĒðĐ isn't a feminist emoji by itself. ðĐ-led professions (ðĐâðŧ, ðĐâðŽ) carry the advocacy weight; standalone ðĐ is neutral.
- âĒðĐ in a relationship post usually isn't possessive in a red-flag way. "My ðĐ" has been standard couple-caption language for over a decade and reads affectionate.
- âĒðĐ is not interchangeable with ð§. The gender signal is preserved; reaching for ð§ is a deliberate inclusive choice.
In pop culture
- âĒEmoji 4.0 in 2016 shipped parallel women profession emojis â the first time Unicode had gendered profession balance. Amy Butcher wrote for the NYT about the absurdity of needing ð° as the "major female" emoji before this correction.
- âĒThe girlboss aesthetic peaked around 2018-2020 as a sincere female-empowerment-in-business movement, then got widely ironized post-2022 ("girlboss, gaslight, gatekeep"). ðĐðž reads different in 2026 than it did in 2019.
- âĒApple's iOS 13.2 in October 2019 redrew 265 emoji designs. ðĐ-specific professions were preserved; what changed was that ð§-based defaults appeared alongside them.
- âĒJennifer Daniel's work as Unicode Emoji Subcommittee chair, covered by MIT Tech Review in 2022, explicitly framed ðĐ as part of a three-way representation system â ðĻ, ðĐ, ð§ â rather than half of a binary.
- âĒWomen-in-STEM campaigns use ðĐâðŧ, ðĐâðŽ, ðĐââïļ, and ðĐâð as hashtag icons (#WomenInTech, #WomenInSTEM) on LinkedIn, Twitter, and conference programs. The emojis themselves are advocacy artifacts.
Trivia
For developers
- âĒCodepoint . Skin-tone modifiers through .
- âĒShortcodes: (GitHub, Slack, Discord). CLDR slug: .
- âĒBase codepoint for 30+ profession ZWJ sequences: ðĐââïļ = . Pattern: woman + ZWJ + profession symbol.
- âĒHair-component modifiers (Emoji 11.0): ðĐâðĶ° red, ðĐâðĶą curly, ðĐâðĶģ white, ðĐâðĶē bald. Each is .
- âĒParallel profession emojis (ðĐââïļ, ðĐâðŧ, etc.) shipped in Emoji 4.0 (2016) as an explicit correction to the male-default profession gap.
ðĐ shipped in Unicode 6.0 in October 2010 as codepoint U+1F469. Part of the 722-emoji foundational set from the Japanese carrier libraries. Skin-tone modifiers came in Emoji 2.0 (2015); profession ZWJ sequences in Emoji 4.0 (2016); hair-component modifiers in Emoji 11.0 (2018).
ðĐââĪïļâðĐ is Couple with Heart: Woman, Woman (a lesbian couple), shipped in 2016. ðĐââĪïļâðâðĐ is Kiss: Woman, Woman. Both are ZWJ sequences: multiple codepoints joined by U+200D. They render as a single glyph on screen.
See the full Emoji Developer Tools guide for regex patterns, encoding helpers, and more.
How do you usually use ðĐ?
Select all that apply
- Woman Emoji (Emojipedia) (emojipedia.org)
- Unicode 6.0 Emoji List (emojipedia.org)
- Emoji 4.0 (Women Professions) (emojipedia.org)
- Emoji 11.0 (Hair Components) (emojipedia.org)
- iOS 13.2 Emoji Changelog (emojipedia.org)
- L2/16-317 Gender-Inclusive Emoji Proposal (unicode.org)
- Meet the Designer Behind Gender-Neutral Emoji (MIT Tech Review) (technologyreview.com)
- Woman: Beard Emoji (emojipedia.org)
- Person Emoji (Emojipedia) (emojipedia.org)
Related Emojis
More People & Body
Share this emoji
2,000+ emojis deeply researched. One click to copy. No ads.
Open eeemoji â