Professional Network Visibility Boost: Women Discover Better Results When Pretending as Male Users
Do your LinkedIn connections viewing you as a thought leader? Are hordes of respondents praising your insights on growing your venture? Do recruiters reaching out to discuss collaborations?
Should that not be the case, the explanation could be that you're not male.
The Test: Changing Profile Gender to achieve Increased Reach
Numerous women participated in an organized LinkedIn experiment this week following viral posts indicated that changing their profile gender to "man" enhanced their platform visibility.
Other testers rewrote their professional summaries to incorporate what they called "masculine-oriented" terminology - adding action-focused professional jargon like "drive", "transform" and "accelerate". Anecdotally, their exposure similarly increased.
Systemic Preference Questions Brought Up
The improved metrics has led some to speculate whether a built-in gender bias in LinkedIn's algorithm prioritizes men who use professional networking terminology.
Like most major networking sites, LinkedIn utilizes a computerized system to decide which content are shown to which members - promoting some while reducing others.
Company Statement
Through a company announcement, LinkedIn acknowledged the phenomenon but claimed it does not consider "demographic information" when determining content distribution. Rather, the company mentioned that "hundreds of signals" affect how content are received.
Changing gender in your settings does not influence how your content appears in search or feed.
Individual Results
Simone Bonnett, who changed her gender identifiers to "he/him" and her profile name to "a masculine version", described remarkable outcomes.
"The statistics I'm observing show a 1,600% increase in visitor traffic and a 1,300% increase in content views," she noted.
Megan Cornish, a communications strategist, began experimenting after noticing her audience decrease significantly.
The Method
- Initially, she modified her gender to "man"
- Then, she used artificial intelligence to rewrite her professional summary using "male-coded" wording
- Lastly, she recycled old posts with comparable "agentic" language
The outcome was immediate: a 415% increase in visibility within one week.
The Downside
Despite the success, Cornish voiced unhappiness with the method.
"Previously, my content were more personal - concise and clever, but also warm and relatable," she explained. "Now, the bro-coded version was assertive and confident - similar to a white male swaggering around."
She discontinued the test after seven days, stating "Every day I continued, and outcomes improved, I became more frustrated."
Varying Outcomes
Not all testers encountered favorable outcomes. One writer who modified both her profile gender to "male" and her race to "Caucasian" reported a decrease in visibility and interaction.
"We know there's algorithmic bias, but it's very challenging to understand how it operates in particular situations or why," she commented.
Wider Consequences
These tests coincide with ongoing discussions about LinkedIn's unique position as both a business platform and community site.
Platform modifications in the past few months have apparently caused female creators experiencing markedly lower visibility, resulting in unofficial tests where the same posts 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 algorithms, including "checks for gender-related disparities."
A spokesperson proposed that current reductions in certain members' visibility might stem from higher volume due to more content 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 refined," she commented. "That's changing. It's becoming increasingly competitive and unpredictable."