Women doctors, scientists, welders among new emojis

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- Women professionals will soon be better represented in emoji form.

Google says Thursday that the Unicode Consortium, which controls emoji standards, has agreed to add 11 new emojis in response to Google's proposal in May to create a set of emojis "with a goal of highlighting the diversity of women's careers and empowering girls everywhere."

Among the new emoji characters is a doctor, a scientist, a farmer and a welder. The characters are available in male forms as well and can be customized for skin tone.

Google's original proposal said women -- and those under 30 in particular -- are the most frequent users of emojis.

The new emojis could be available on smartphones before the end of the year.