🔗 Share this article

Are your professional networking connections viewing you as a industry expert? Are hordes of respondents praising your advice on expanding your venture? Do recruiters reaching out to explore collaborations?

Should that not be the case, the reason could be your gender.

The Experiment: Changing Profile Gender to achieve Increased Reach

Dozens of female professionals participated in an organized professional network test recently after popular discussions indicated that changing their profile gender to "male" boosted their network presence.

Some participants rewrote their profiles to incorporate what they called "bro-coded" language - adding action-focused business buzzwords like "drive", "transform" and "accelerate". Anecdotally, their exposure also improved.

Algorithmic Bias Questions Brought Up

The improved metrics has led some to speculate whether a built-in sexism in the platform's system prioritizes men who employ online business jargon.

Similar to most major networking sites, LinkedIn employs a computerized system to determine which content appear to which users - promoting some while suppressing others.

Company Statement

In a recent blog post, LinkedIn acknowledged the trend but stated it does not factor in "demographic information" when determining post visibility. Instead, the company mentioned that "numerous factors" affect how posts are received.

Changing gender in your settings does not influence how your content shows up in search or feed.

Individual Results

A social media consultant, who modified her pronouns to "he/him" and her name to "Simon E", reported remarkable results.

"The numbers I'm observing indicate a 1,600% increase in visitor traffic and a thirteen-fold jump in impressions," she commented.

Megan Cornish, a marketing expert, began experimenting after observing her reach decline significantly.

The Process

• First, she modified her gender to "man"
• Then, she used AI tools to rewrite her profile using "male-coded" language
• Lastly, she recycled previous content with comparable "assertive" style

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

The Downside

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

"Previously, my content were more personal - brief and clever, but also friendly and human," she explained. "Currently, the masculine version was assertive and confident - like a Caucasian man swaggering around."

She discontinued the experiment after seven days, saying "Each day I persisted, and results improved, I became angrier."

Mixed Results

Not all participants experienced positive outcomes. Cass Cooper who changed both her profile gender to "man" and her ethnicity to "white" described a reduction in visibility and engagement.

"We know there's algorithmic bias, but it's extremely difficult to comprehend how it functions in particular situations or why," she remarked.

Wider Consequences

These tests coincide with continuing conversations about LinkedIn's unique position as both a professional network and community site.

Recent changes in recent months have apparently resulted in female creators experiencing markedly lower visibility, resulting in informal experiments where identical posts by men and women received dramatically unequal reach.

System Details

Per LinkedIn, the platform uses artificial intelligence to classify and distribute content based on multiple factors, including what's shared and the user's professional identity.

The company claims it regularly evaluates its algorithms, including "checks for inequalities based on gender."

A spokesperson proposed that current reductions in some users' reach might stem from increased competition due to additional posts on the platform.

Changing Landscape

According to a tester observed, "masculine-oriented language" appears to be growing on the platform.

"People often view LinkedIn as more professional and polished," she commented. "That's changing. It's turning into increasingly aggressive and less controlled."