🔗 Share this article

Are your LinkedIn followers recognizing you as a industry expert? Do numerous commenters praising your advice on growing your business? Are headhunters reaching out to discuss collaborations?

Should that not be the case, the explanation might be your gender.

The Experiment: Changing Profile Gender for Increased Reach

Numerous women joined a collective LinkedIn experiment this week after popular discussions indicated that switching their gender to "man" enhanced their platform visibility.

Some participants rewrote their profiles to incorporate what they termed "masculine-oriented" language - adding action-focused business buzzwords like "propel", "revolutionize" and "expedite". Anecdotally, their exposure similarly increased.

Systemic Preference Concerns Brought Up

The improved metrics has led some to speculate whether an inherent sexism in LinkedIn's algorithm prioritizes men who use online business jargon.

Like many large networking sites, LinkedIn employs a computerized system to determine which posts are shown to which members - boosting some while reducing others.

Platform Response

In a recent company announcement, LinkedIn recognized the phenomenon but stated it does not consider "personal characteristics" when determining content distribution. Instead, the company mentioned that "numerous factors" influence how content perform.

Modifying profile gender on your profile does not influence how your content appears in search or feed.

Personal Experiences

Simone Bonnett, who changed her gender identifiers to "he/him" and her name to "Simon E", reported extraordinary results.

"The statistics I'm seeing show a 1,600% increase in profile views and a thirteen-fold jump in content views," she noted.

Megan Cornish, a communications strategist, began experimenting after observing her audience decline substantially.

The Method

• First, she modified her profile gender to "man"
• Then, she used artificial intelligence to rewrite her profile using "male-coded" language
• Finally, she repurposed old posts with comparable "assertive" style

The result was immediate: a more than fourfold rise in reach within one week.

The Downside

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

"Before, my posts were softer - concise and insightful, but also friendly and human," she stated. "Now, the bro-coded version was assertive and self-assured - like a Caucasian man swaggering around."

She abandoned the test after one week, stating "Each day I persisted, and outcomes improved, I became angrier."

Mixed Results

Some testers encountered favorable outcomes. Cass Cooper who modified both her gender to "man" and her ethnicity to "white" described a reduction in reach and interaction.

"We understand there's systemic preference, but it's very challenging to understand how it functions in specific cases or the reasons behind it," she remarked.

Broader Implications

These tests occur alongside continuing discussions about LinkedIn's distinctive role as both a professional network and community site.

Platform modifications in the past few months have apparently resulted in female creators experiencing markedly lower visibility, leading to informal experiments where the same posts by male and female users received dramatically unequal reach.

Technical Explanation

According to LinkedIn, the platform uses artificial intelligence to classify and spread content based on various elements, including what's shared and the member's career profile.

The company states it regularly evaluates its systems, including "checks for gender-related disparities."

Company representative proposed that recent declines in some users' reach might originate from higher volume due to additional posts on the platform.

Changing Landscape

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

"People often view LinkedIn as more professional and refined," she remarked. "This is evolving. It's becoming increasingly aggressive and less controlled."