Google Doodle celebrates International Women’s Day with confetti and a digital march

Women supporting each other is the theme of this year’s Google Doodle marking International Women’s Day 2023.

Designed by Alyssa Winans, the Doodle shows women marching, breastfeeding, female caregivers and women in power.

Users who click on the image are also treated to a shower of confetti and a digital women’s march across the screen.

Explaining the doodle, Google said: ‘Today’s Doodle honours International Women’s Day by celebrating many ways in which women support women. The vignettes within each “GOOGLE” letter highlight just a few of the many areas in which women around the world support each other to progress and improve each other’s quality of life.

‘Women in positions of influence who advocate for progress across issues central to the lives of women everywhere. Women who come together to explore, learn, and rally for their rights. Women who are primary caregivers to people of all walks of life. Women who are critical support systems for each other in motherhood.’

Explaining how she came up with the final design, Winans said: ‘Our theme this year was ‘women supporting women’, so I was able to spend a lot of time reflecting on all the ways I’ve been supported by the other women in my life. 

‘I’m the youngest of three girls, so since birth I’ve always benefited from the wisdom and support of those who came before me! I’m grateful for that and all the ways I see women in my life standing up for each other and their values.’

Challenged with the task of trying to capture the concept of womanhood in 2023, Winans said while looking to her own life couldn’t encapsulate every nuance, looking to those around her provided inspiration.

‘My one life certainly can’t capture the full range of what being a woman is,’ she said. ‘One thing I was thinking about is that a few people around me in the past few years have had children, and have started talking about how complicated it was to navigate. Breastfeeding? Formula? In public? Workplaces? So I did want to use one of the letters for two women feeding their children on the homepage as a nod to that experience.

‘I know the full experience of what it means to be a woman certainly can’t all be captured in one image, so I hope it’s merely a jumping off point to reflect on how broad, complex, nuanced, and powerful the notion of womanhood is.’

Winans’ delightful Doodle is certainly more complex than some of the company’s early efforts. In 2005 Google replaced the second ‘O’ in its logo to the female symbol, and in 2009 swapped the same letter for flowers.

MORE : I was fed up with companies using International Women’s Day to brag – so I set up a Twitter bot to expose their pay gaps

MORE : International Women’s Day 2023 quotes, poems, and Instagram captions