🔗 Share this article

Do your LinkedIn connections viewing you as a thought leader? Are hordes of respondents praising your advice on expanding your business? Do recruiters reaching out to explore opportunities?

If not, the reason could be your gender.

The Experiment: Changing Profile Gender for Better Visibility

Numerous women joined an organized professional network test recently following viral posts suggested that switching their gender to "male" boosted their platform visibility.

Other testers rewrote their profiles to incorporate what they termed "masculine-oriented" terminology - inserting results-driven business buzzwords like "propel", "transform" and "expedite". Based on reports, their exposure similarly increased.

Algorithmic Bias Questions Brought Up

The engagement increase has led some to speculate whether an inherent gender bias in LinkedIn's algorithm favors men who use professional networking terminology.

Similar to many large networking sites, LinkedIn employs a computerized system to decide which content appear to which members - promoting some while suppressing others.

Company Statement

In a recent company announcement, LinkedIn acknowledged the trend but stated it does not consider "demographic information" when determining content distribution. Rather, the company mentioned that "numerous factors" influence how content perform.

Changing gender in your settings does not influence how your posts shows up in results or timelines.

Individual Results

A social media consultant, who modified her pronouns 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 thirteen-fold jump in impressions," she noted.

Megan Cornish, a communications strategist, started testing after noticing her audience decline substantially.

The Process

• First, she changed her gender to "male"
• Then, she used AI tools to rephrase her profile using "masculine-oriented" language
• Lastly, she recycled old posts with comparable "assertive" language

The result was instantaneous: a more than fourfold rise in reach within seven days.

The Downside

Despite the positive results, Cornish voiced dissatisfaction with the method.

"Previously, my content were softer - concise and clever, but also friendly and relatable," she explained. "Now, the masculine version was assertive and self-assured - like a Caucasian man being overly confident."

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

Varying Outcomes

Not all testers encountered favorable outcomes. Cass Cooper who modified both her gender to "male" and her ethnicity to "white" reported a reduction in reach and engagement.

"We know there's algorithmic bias, but it's very challenging to comprehend how it functions in particular situations or the reasons behind it," she commented.

Wider Consequences

These tests occur alongside ongoing discussions about LinkedIn's unique position as both a professional network and social space.

Recent changes in recent months have reportedly caused women professionals experiencing markedly lower visibility, leading to informal experiments where the same content by men and women received vastly different audience engagement.

Technical Explanation

According to LinkedIn, the network uses artificial intelligence to categorize and distribute content 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."

A spokesperson proposed that recent declines in certain members' visibility might stem from increased competition due to more content on the network.

Changing Landscape

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

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