Emma Ihrer is standing, her right hand clenched over her heart. She is talking to other women about rights, freedom, work. She is the last woman, in chronological order, to whom Google dedicated one of her doodles a few days ago, on January 3, to commemorate the 161st anniversary of her birth. Portrayed by the artist Isabel Seliger while holding a rally and addressing her fellow fighters, Ihrer, a German trade unionist of Polish origin, feminist activist is the first woman of 2018 to be celebrated by the US tech company which paid homage to her through the modification of the own logo.
Invented almost as a joke in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergej Brin, founders of the search engine giant, the doodle commemorates cultural events, momentous events, extraordinary lives. The five letters that make up the word Google become a background to illustrate and remember something very important. More and more women are being honored with the doodle that appears throughout the day of the celebration and can be viewed whenever the homepage of the search engine is opened. Out of 136 logo changes that Google made in 2017, 80 were dedicated to female figures who have left their mark.
The last Italian honored, on December 10, 2017, was Grace Deledda, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature and Google has chosen the day of the anniversary of the highest award given to the Sardinian writer by the Swedish Academy to celebrate her. A right and dutiful tribute to a woman who wrote her own destiny in the first person. Starting from the microcosm of Nuoro, the city in Sardinia that had given her birth, she pursued her dream overcoming obstacles and resistance. A forerunner “self made woman” who staked everything on herself.
Deledda isn’t the only strong and indomitable woman Google has celebrated. Scrolling through the doodle archive, one comes across many other pioneering women, those who have traced roads and paths for others all over the world. Bessie Coleman the first African American to become an aviator, Elvia Carrillo who fought for women’s suffrage in Mexico, Veronika Dusarova first woman in Russia to conduct a symphony orchestra; Cornelia Sorabji India’s first lawyer and first woman to study at Oxford; the Australian Henrietta Augusta Dudgale who incited the women of her country to publicly demand equality; the journalist Claire Holligworth author of one of the most sensational scoops in history: the outbreak of the Second World War. Together with them there are photographers, philosophers, scientists, doctors, artists, sportsmen, feminists from all latitudes, countries and continents.
Elvia Carrillo
A female constellation to rediscover and discover. From which to draw power and valuable lessons. Women example of audacity, perseverance and revolution. Women who weren’t afraid to dare, to ask, to fight. Women who fought for others helping to change the world and its course. Women who must be part of the collective memory and of our inner landscapes because they are teachers of awareness and freedom, pavers of obstacles, polar stars. If most of the time these characters have a dedicated doodle that can only be viewed in their country of origin, for last March 8, the day dedicated to Women’s Day, Google has thought of a global doodle. All over the world he remembered 13 women from the painter Frida Kahlo to the South African singer and activist Miriam Makeba.
Zaha Hadid
Marketing strategy or real intention to promote female biographies, Google’s choice to double the number of doodles dedicated to women – there were only 44 in 2016 – is one of the results of the global ferment carried on by the feminist movement, by many activists who study and research the past and history to free the lives of women who still have so much to teach from oblivion. It is no coincidence that one of the best-selling books of 2017 is Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo’s “Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls”, stories whose protagonists are courageous and resilient women who have thought differently, breaking clichés and stereotypes. And who knows if these very strong female figures inspired the same Google workers who sued the company accusing it of discriminatory behavior. But one thing is certain: this year we expect the doodle to remember not only the birthdays of Etta James or Emily Brontë, but also the ninetieth anniversary of the conquest of the right to vote by the English suffragettes and why not, even one celebration of ’68the dawn of the Italian feminist movement.