Results: Daily Debate: Did the subtle change to Facebook's icons give more gender equality?

An image may be worth a thousand words, but a Facebook icon represents literally millions of people. The magnitude of the symbolism of Facebook’s seemingly innocuous icons is something designer Caitlin Winner realized not too long after she started working at the company. Winner outlined in a blog post why and how Facebook’s icons gained a bit more gender equality.

If you take a look at the “friends” icon on Facebook, you may notice that the female silhouette is now in front of the male, and both of their hairstyles look a bit more updated. Same goes for the “groups” icon, which now also features a more unisex third silhouette instead of two men a one woman (in the background). Those changes came after Winner noticed the old, more male-centric versions and took it upon herself to come up with alternatives. After countless iterations, she eventually included her updates in the company’s official kit of icons.