Gender symbols
The gender symbols are a small, old family of marks: the female symbol ♀ and the male symbol ♂ came down from astronomy and alchemy, and Unicode has since given the wider family its own row of characters — combined signs, doubled signs and the transgender symbol. Every mark copies from the grids below; the table after them gives each sign’s name, code and meaning, and the last sections cover where these symbols are actually used.
Copy the symbols
Pairs
The male and female symbols are often needed together — for forms, charts and pair labels. These cards copy both at once:
Names, codes and meanings
| Symbol | Unicode name | Code | Meaning and origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| ♀ | Female sign | U+2640 | The sign of Venus — a circle over a cross, read as the goddess’s hand-mirror. In alchemy it also meant copper; in astronomy it is still the planet Venus. The classic female gender symbol. |
| ♂ | Male sign | U+2642 | The sign of Mars — a circle with an arrow pointing north-east, read as the god’s shield and spear. In alchemy it meant iron; in astronomy, the planet Mars. The classic male gender symbol. |
| ⚢ | Doubled female sign | U+26A2 | Two female signs together — used since the 1970s as a lesbian symbol in community and academic writing. |
| ⚣ | Doubled male sign | U+26A3 | Two male signs together — the original male to male symbol, long used as a gay symbol in community publications and signage. |
| ⚤ | Interlocked female and male sign | U+26A4 | The two classic signs interlocked — used for heterosexuality and, in older texts, bisexuality. |
| ⚥ | Male and female sign | U+26A5 | Both sets of strokes on one circle. Botany used it for hermaphrodite flowers long before it appeared in gender contexts — one reason male female symbols combined like this read as “both in one”. |
| ⚦ | Male with stroke sign | U+26A6 | The male sign with an added stroke — found in older biological literature for transgender and intersex subjects. |
| ⚧ | Transgender symbol | U+26A7 | Combines the arrow of Mars, the cross of Venus and a third stroke holding both — designed in the 1990s and encoded in Unicode in 2020. |
| ⚲ | Neuter | U+26B2 | A plain circle with a small nub — the “neither” mark, used in biology for neuter organisms and in grammar discussions. |
The two classics, briefly
If most people picture just one symbol of a female, it is ♀ — and the pair’s history is shared: Linnaeus borrowed the planetary signs for biology in the 1750s, using Venus for female and Mars for male, and the convention never left. That astronomy link is why the same two marks still label planets in star charts — the female symbol is Venus and the male symbol is Mars, in the sky and in the textbook at once.
Related emoji signage
Restroom and facilities signage uses pictographs, not text symbols — 🚺 and 🚹 are emoji, drawn by your device rather than typed as characters. They copy from here too, but expect them in colour and at emoji size:
Where these symbols are used
Biology and medicine: pedigrees, forms and lab shorthand, where ♀/♂ label sex compactly. Astronomy and astrology: ♀ = Venus, ♂ = Mars on charts old and new. Profiles and text: a single sign in a bio line or username where a whole word would be heavy. Botany: ⚥ and ⚲ in plant descriptions. In every field the rule is the same: use the sign whose meaning your reader shares, and prefer the plain ♀/♂ pair when the audience is general — the extended row rewards readers who know it and puzzles those who do not.
Display note: the classic pair ♀ ♂ renders in every font. The extended signs (⚢–⚧, Unicode’s later additions) can show as boxes on older devices — test your text on a second screen when the audience’s devices are unknown.
Explore more
The planet connection runs through the zodiac symbols (Mars and Venus rule signs there), names and codes for every family live in the symbol names and meanings guide, and pictorial marks of all kinds gather on the emoji copy and paste hub.
Frequently asked questions
What is the female symbol?
♀ (U+2640) — a circle over a cross, originally the sign of the planet Venus. Copy it from the first grid on this page.
What is the male symbol?
♂ (U+2642) — a circle with an arrow pointing north-east, originally the sign of the planet Mars.
What is the transgender symbol?
⚧ (U+26A7) — one circle carrying the Mars arrow, the Venus cross and a combined third stroke. It was designed in the 1990s and added to Unicode in 2020.
Why do the gender symbols look like planet signs?
Because they are planet signs: Linnaeus adopted Venus (♀) for female and Mars (♂) for male in the 1750s, and biology kept the borrowing.
Do these symbols work in usernames and bios?
♀ and ♂ work almost everywhere text works. The rarer extended signs depend on the device’s fonts — check the display note above before using them in a name.