> Google Doodle is obsessed with depicting woman in lab coats
The lab coat fixation isn't specific to the Google Doodle team, nor to women (and possibly not to the West, but I lack data).
Did you know that (in the US and UK at least) members of various medical and medicine-adjacent professions are rated more highly (in terms of their perceived competence, professionalism, trustworthiness, etc.) by their customers/clients/patients if they wear a white lab coat? This applies to doctors, dentists, pharmacists, and veterinarians. In general, this effect is bolstered by wearing 'office' attire under the coat, except for surgeons who benefit more from wearing scrubs under the coat.
In the UK, there has been a move to shorter sleeves since full length sleeves have been implicated in spreading pathogens, but the public still prefers the full length sleeves and continues to rate doctors that wear them more highly even when they've been made aware of the the data on pathogens.
You can find all sorts of research on this with searches for 'lab coat survey' or 'white coat effect'.
> In general, this effect is bolstered by wearing 'office' attire under the coat
This part I did not know.
This does bring up a good point as to whether Google itself believes in these cliches of STEM. Google's company cultural mentions "you can be serious without a suit" and management follows suit with jeans and a shirt. Of course, I don't think jeans and a shirt actually changes whether it is any less corporatey.
Meanwhile Google fired and silenced scientists such as Timnit Gebru.
Which is all to say Google doesn't even uphold the very ideals it is pitching to the masses.
Here is a recent study you may find interesting. It includes data and conclusions about gender bias as well as preferences about attire, and how they intersect:
The lab coat fixation isn't specific to the Google Doodle team, nor to women (and possibly not to the West, but I lack data).
Did you know that (in the US and UK at least) members of various medical and medicine-adjacent professions are rated more highly (in terms of their perceived competence, professionalism, trustworthiness, etc.) by their customers/clients/patients if they wear a white lab coat? This applies to doctors, dentists, pharmacists, and veterinarians. In general, this effect is bolstered by wearing 'office' attire under the coat, except for surgeons who benefit more from wearing scrubs under the coat.
In the UK, there has been a move to shorter sleeves since full length sleeves have been implicated in spreading pathogens, but the public still prefers the full length sleeves and continues to rate doctors that wear them more highly even when they've been made aware of the the data on pathogens.
You can find all sorts of research on this with searches for 'lab coat survey' or 'white coat effect'.