The doodles on Google’s homepage are an intrinsic part of our internet culture. These doodles have been used to commemorate many occasions or holidays such as the birthdays of historic greats and anniversaries of key inventions. However, one women’s rights activist group – Spark Movement – claims Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s doodles don’t include enough women or minorities and therefore is sexist as well as racist.
Activist group breaks down the numbers of Google’s doodles
The group recently compiled a report that was based on data from the past four years. The report shows Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) created a total of 445 doodles from 2010 to 2013. Out of those doodles 357 of them were of men whereas 73 of them were women. 54 of those women were white and 19 were of color. Out of the men, only 82 of the doodles featured men of color. The report also notes that 2013 was the first year a Google doodle featured a woman of color globally on all Google websites. The referenced doodle was of legendary singer Ella Fitzgerald.
Spark Movement recently put up an online petition on Change.org directed to Google. The petition claims to urge Google “to be more diverse in its representation of the world’s historical figures and commit to partnering with us as they go forward with that effort.”
Spark Movement offers ideas on who Google should doodle next
As an effort to inspire ideas, the group also offered a list of women who should be featured in doodles. The list includes actress/singer Josephine Baker, Civil Rights activist Ella Baker, feminist activist Prudencia Ayala, and paleontologist Mary Anning.
The organization report continued, “About half the doodles in January were dedicated to women — a few people that we had on our list of awesome historical heroes even got doodled. And by celebrating five women of colour in the first two months of this year, there have already been more women of colour in 2014 than there were in 2010, 2011 and 2012.”
