Are your LinkedIn connections viewing you as a thought leader? Are hordes of commenters applauding your insights on expanding your business? Do recruiters making contact to discuss opportunities?
If not, the explanation could be that you're not male.
The Test: Modifying Gender Identity to achieve Better Visibility
Numerous women participated in an organized LinkedIn experiment recently after viral posts suggested that changing their profile gender to "male" boosted their network presence.
Other testers rewrote their profiles to include what they termed "bro-coded" language - adding results-driven professional jargon like "propel", "revolutionize" and "expedite". Anecdotally, their visibility similarly increased.
Algorithmic Bias Concerns Brought Up
The engagement increase has led some to speculate whether an inherent sexism in the platform's system favors men who use online business jargon.
Similar to most major networking sites, LinkedIn employs an algorithm to determine which posts appear to which users - boosting some while suppressing others.
Platform Response
Through a company announcement, LinkedIn recognized the phenomenon but claimed it does not consider "demographic information" when deciding post visibility. Rather, the company mentioned that "numerous factors" influence how content are received.
Modifying profile gender on your profile does not affect how your content shows up in results or timelines.
Personal Experiences
Simone Bonnett, who modified her gender identifiers to "male pronouns" and her profile name to "a masculine version", reported extraordinary results.
"The numbers I'm observing indicate a sixteen-fold rise in visitor traffic and a 1,300% increase in content views," she noted.
Another professional, a marketing expert, started testing after observing her audience decline substantially.
The Process
- First, she modified her profile gender to "man"
- Then, she used AI tools to rephrase her professional summary using "male-coded" language
- Lastly, she recycled old posts with comparable "assertive" language
The result was immediate: a more than fourfold rise in reach within one week.
The Downside
Despite the positive results, Cornish expressed unhappiness with the approach.
"Before, my content were softer - brief and clever, but also warm and human," she explained. "Now, the bro-coded version was assertive and confident - like a white male swaggering around."
She discontinued the experiment after seven days, stating "Each day I continued, and outcomes got better, I became angrier."
Varying Outcomes
Some testers encountered positive results. Cass Cooper who changed both her gender to "male" and her ethnicity to "white" reported a decrease in visibility and engagement.
"We know there's algorithmic bias, but it's very challenging to understand how it operates in specific cases or why," she commented.
Wider Consequences
These tests coincide with ongoing conversations about LinkedIn's unique role as both a professional network and community site.
Platform modifications in the past few months have apparently caused women professionals experiencing markedly lower exposure, leading to informal experiments where the same content by men and women received dramatically unequal audience engagement.
Technical Explanation
According to LinkedIn, the network uses AI systems to categorize and spread posts based on multiple factors, including post content and the user's professional identity.
The company claims it regularly evaluates its algorithms, including "examinations of inequalities based on gender."
Company representative suggested that recent declines in certain members' visibility might stem from higher volume due to additional posts on the network.
Evolving Environment
As one participant observed, "masculine-oriented language" appears to be increasing on the platform.
"Users typically consider LinkedIn as more professional and refined," she remarked. "That's changing. It's turning into increasingly aggressive and unpredictable."
