🔗 Share this article

Do your LinkedIn connections viewing you as a industry expert? Are hordes of commenters applauding your insights on growing your business? Are headhunters making contact to explore opportunities?

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

The Experiment: Changing Profile Gender to achieve Increased Reach

Numerous female professionals joined a collective professional network test this week after viral posts indicated that changing their profile gender to "man" boosted their platform visibility.

Other testers rewrote their profiles to include what they called "bro-coded" terminology - inserting action-focused business buzzwords like "drive", "revolutionize" and "expedite". Anecdotally, their exposure also improved.

Systemic Preference Questions Raised

The engagement increase has caused some to wonder whether an inherent gender bias in the platform's system favors men who use professional networking terminology.

Similar to many large networking sites, LinkedIn utilizes a computerized system to determine which posts are shown to which users - promoting some while reducing others.

Platform Response

In a recent blog post, LinkedIn recognized the trend but stated it does not consider "personal characteristics" when deciding post visibility. Instead, the company mentioned that "hundreds of signals" affect how posts are received.

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

Personal Experiences

Simone Bonnett, who modified her gender identifiers to "male pronouns" and her name to "a masculine version", reported remarkable outcomes.

"The numbers I'm seeing indicate a 1,600% increase in profile views and a thirteen-fold jump in content views," she commented.

Megan Cornish, a marketing expert, started testing after noticing her reach decrease substantially.

The Method

• Initially, she modified her profile gender to "man"
• Subsequently, she used AI tools to rephrase her profile using "male-coded" wording
• Lastly, she repurposed previous content with similar "agentic" style

The outcome was instantaneous: a 415% increase in reach within one week.

The Downside

Despite the success, Cornish voiced dissatisfaction with the method.

"Before, my posts were softer - concise and insightful, but also friendly and human," she stated. "Currently, the bro-coded version was forceful and confident - like a Caucasian man swaggering around."

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

Mixed Results

Some testers experienced favorable results. Cass Cooper who modified both her gender to "man" and her race to "white" reported a decrease in reach and engagement.

"We understand there's systemic preference, but it's very challenging to comprehend how it functions in specific cases or the reasons behind it," she remarked.

Wider Consequences

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

Recent changes in the past few months have apparently resulted in female creators experiencing markedly lower visibility, resulting in informal experiments where identical content by men and women received vastly different reach.

System Details

According to LinkedIn, the platform uses artificial intelligence to classify and distribute posts based on various elements, including post content and the member's career profile.

The company states it frequently assesses its algorithms, including "checks for inequalities based on gender."

Company representative proposed that recent declines in some users' reach might originate from increased competition due to more content on the network.

Evolving Environment

As one participant observed, "bro-coding" appears to be increasing on the network.

"Users typically consider LinkedIn as more professional and refined," she remarked. "This is evolving. It's becoming increasingly aggressive and less controlled."