Professional Network Visibility Surge: Women Find Better Results By Pretending as Male Users
Do your LinkedIn followers recognizing you as a thought leader? Do numerous commenters praising your advice on growing your venture? Do recruiters making contact to discuss collaborations?
Should that not be the case, the explanation might be that you're not male.
The Experiment: Modifying Profile Gender for Increased Reach
Numerous women joined an organized LinkedIn experiment recently after viral posts suggested that switching their profile gender to "male" enhanced their network presence.
Other testers modified their professional summaries to incorporate what they called "bro-coded" language - adding action-focused business buzzwords like "drive", "transform" and "accelerate". Anecdotally, their visibility also improved.
Algorithmic Bias Questions Brought Up
The improved metrics has caused some to wonder whether a built-in sexism in LinkedIn's algorithm favors men who use professional networking terminology.
Like many large social media platforms, LinkedIn employs an algorithm to determine which posts appear to which users - boosting some while suppressing others.
Company Statement
In a recent company announcement, LinkedIn recognized the phenomenon but claimed it does not consider "demographic information" when deciding content distribution. Rather, the company mentioned that "hundreds of signals" affect how posts perform.
Modifying profile gender on your profile does not influence how your content shows up in results or timelines.
Personal Experiences
A social media consultant, who changed her gender identifiers to "he/him" and her profile name to "a masculine version", reported extraordinary outcomes.
"The numbers I'm seeing indicate a sixteen-fold rise in profile views and a thirteen-fold jump in content views," she commented.
Another professional, a communications strategist, started testing after noticing her audience decrease substantially.
The Method
- First, she changed her gender to "male"
- Then, she used artificial intelligence to rephrase her profile using "masculine-oriented" language
- Lastly, she recycled old posts with similar "agentic" language
The result was immediate: a more than fourfold rise in reach within seven days.
The Negative Aspect
Despite the positive results, Cornish voiced dissatisfaction with the approach.
"Before, my posts were more personal - brief and insightful, but also warm and human," she stated. "Now, the masculine version was assertive and self-assured - like a Caucasian man being overly confident."
She discontinued the test after one week, saying "Every day I continued, and results improved, I became more frustrated."
Varying Outcomes
Some participants encountered positive outcomes. One writer who changed both her gender to "male" and her ethnicity to "white" described a decrease in reach and engagement.
"We know there's algorithmic bias, but it's extremely difficult to comprehend how it operates in specific cases or why," she remarked.
Wider Consequences
These tests occur alongside continuing discussions about LinkedIn's unique position as both a business platform and social space.
Recent changes in the past few months have apparently caused women professionals experiencing significantly reduced visibility, leading to unofficial tests where identical content by male and female users received dramatically unequal reach.
Technical Explanation
According to LinkedIn, the platform uses AI systems to classify and distribute posts 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."
A spokesperson proposed that current reductions in some users' reach might originate from higher volume due to additional posts on the platform.
Evolving Environment
As one participant noted, "masculine-oriented language" appears to be increasing on the network.
"Users typically consider LinkedIn as more professional and polished," she remarked. "That's changing. It's turning into increasingly aggressive and unpredictable."
