🔗 Share this article

Are your professional networking followers viewing you as a industry expert? Do numerous respondents praising your insights on expanding your business? Do recruiters making contact to discuss opportunities?

If not, the explanation might be your gender.

The Experiment: Changing Gender Identity to achieve Better Visibility

Dozens of female professionals joined a collective professional network test this week following popular discussions suggested that changing their profile gender to "male" boosted their network presence.

Some participants modified their profiles to incorporate what they termed "bro-coded" language - adding action-focused business buzzwords like "drive", "transform" and "accelerate". Based on reports, their visibility similarly increased.

Algorithmic Bias Questions Brought Up

The improved metrics has led some to speculate whether an inherent sexism in LinkedIn's algorithm favors male users who use professional networking terminology.

Like many large networking sites, LinkedIn utilizes an algorithm to determine which content are shown to which members - boosting some while suppressing others.

Platform Response

In a recent blog post, LinkedIn recognized the trend but claimed it does not consider "demographic information" when determining content distribution. Instead, the company explained that "numerous factors" affect how posts perform.

Changing gender in your settings does not affect how your posts appears in search or feed.

Individual Results

A social media consultant, who changed her pronouns to "male pronouns" and her profile name to "Simon E", reported remarkable outcomes.

"The numbers I'm observing indicate a sixteen-fold rise in visitor traffic and a thirteen-fold jump in impressions," she commented.

Another professional, a marketing expert, began experimenting after observing her audience decrease substantially.

The Process

• Initially, she modified her gender to "man"
• Then, she used AI tools to rephrase her professional summary using "masculine-oriented" wording
• Finally, she recycled old posts with similar "assertive" style

The result was immediate: a 415% increase in visibility within seven days.

The Negative Aspect

Despite the positive results, Cornish expressed unhappiness with the approach.

"Previously, my posts were softer - concise and clever, but also warm and human," she explained. "Currently, the bro-coded version was assertive and confident - like a Caucasian man being overly confident."

She abandoned the experiment after seven days, saying "Each day I persisted, and results got better, I became more frustrated."

Varying Outcomes

Not all participants encountered favorable results. Cass Cooper who changed both her profile gender to "male" and her ethnicity to "white" reported a reduction in visibility and engagement.

"We understand there's systemic preference, but it's very challenging to understand how it operates in specific cases or why," she remarked.

Wider Consequences

These experiments coincide with continuing conversations about LinkedIn's unique role as both a professional network and social space.

Platform modifications in recent months have reportedly caused female creators experiencing markedly lower visibility, leading to informal experiments where identical content by male and female users received dramatically unequal audience engagement.

System Details

According to LinkedIn, the platform uses artificial intelligence to classify and distribute posts based on multiple factors, including post content and the member's career profile.

The company claims it frequently assesses its systems, including "checks for gender-related disparities."

Company representative proposed that recent declines in some users' reach might stem from higher volume due to more content on the network.

Evolving Environment

As one participant noted, "bro-coding" appears to be increasing on the platform.

"Users typically consider LinkedIn as more businesslike and refined," she remarked. "This is evolving. It's becoming increasingly aggressive and less controlled."