🔗 Share this article

Do your professional networking connections viewing you as a industry expert? Do numerous respondents praising your advice on growing your business? Are headhunters reaching out to explore opportunities?

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

The Experiment: Changing Gender Identity to achieve Better Visibility

Numerous female professionals joined an organized LinkedIn experiment recently following viral posts suggested that changing their gender to "man" boosted their platform visibility.

Some participants modified their professional summaries to incorporate what they called "masculine-oriented" language - inserting results-driven professional jargon like "drive", "transform" and "accelerate". Anecdotally, their exposure similarly increased.

Systemic Preference Concerns Raised

The engagement increase has led some to speculate whether an inherent gender bias in the platform's system favors men who employ online business jargon.

Like many large social media platforms, LinkedIn utilizes a computerized system to determine which content are shown to which members - promoting some while suppressing others.

Platform Response

Through a company announcement, LinkedIn acknowledged the phenomenon but claimed it does not consider "personal characteristics" when determining content distribution. Rather, the company explained that "hundreds of signals" influence how content perform.

Changing gender in your settings does not affect how your posts appears in results or timelines.

Personal Experiences

Simone Bonnett, who changed her pronouns to "he/him" and her profile name to "Simon E", described extraordinary outcomes.

"The statistics I'm seeing indicate a 1,600% increase in visitor traffic and a 1,300% increase in content views," she commented.

Megan Cornish, a communications strategist, started testing after noticing her reach decrease significantly.

The Method

• Initially, she changed her profile gender to "man"
• Then, she used AI tools to rewrite her professional summary using "male-coded" wording
• Lastly, she recycled previous content with comparable "assertive" style

The result was immediate: a 415% increase in visibility within one week.

The Downside

Although the success, Cornish voiced dissatisfaction with the method.

"Before, my posts were more personal - brief and insightful, but also friendly and human," she explained. "Currently, the masculine version was assertive and confident - similar to a white male being overly confident."

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

Mixed Results

Not all participants experienced favorable outcomes. Cass Cooper who modified both her gender to "man" and her race to "Caucasian" reported a reduction in visibility 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 coincide with continuing discussions about LinkedIn's unique role as both a professional network and social space.

Recent changes in the past few months have reportedly resulted in women professionals experiencing significantly reduced visibility, resulting in informal experiments where identical posts by male and female users received vastly different audience engagement.

Technical Explanation

According to LinkedIn, the network uses AI systems to categorize and spread content based on various elements, including what's shared and the user's professional identity.

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

A spokesperson suggested that recent declines in some users' reach might originate 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 network.

"Users typically consider LinkedIn as more businesslike and polished," she commented. "That's changing. It's becoming increasingly aggressive and unpredictable."