🔗 Share this article

Are your LinkedIn connections recognizing you as a thought leader? Do numerous respondents applauding your insights on expanding your business? Are headhunters reaching out to explore opportunities?

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

The Test: Modifying Gender Identity to achieve Increased Reach

Dozens of female professionals joined a collective LinkedIn experiment this week following viral posts suggested that switching their profile gender to "male" boosted their platform visibility.

Other testers modified their professional summaries to incorporate what they called "masculine-oriented" language - adding results-driven business buzzwords like "drive", "revolutionize" and "expedite". Based on reports, their visibility also improved.

Systemic Preference Concerns Brought Up

The engagement increase has led some to speculate whether a built-in sexism in the platform's system favors men who use online business jargon.

Like most major networking sites, LinkedIn utilizes a computerized system to determine which content appear to which users - promoting some while reducing others.

Company Statement

In a recent blog post, LinkedIn acknowledged the phenomenon but claimed it does not consider "personal characteristics" when determining content distribution. Instead, the company explained that "hundreds of signals" affect how posts perform.

Changing gender on your profile does not influence how your content shows up in search or feed.

Personal Experiences

A social media consultant, who modified her gender identifiers to "he/him" and her profile name to "a masculine version", reported extraordinary results.

"The statistics I'm seeing show a 1,600% increase in visitor traffic and a thirteen-fold jump in impressions," she noted.

Another professional, a communications strategist, began experimenting after observing her reach decrease significantly.

The Method

• First, she modified her profile gender to "male"
• Then, she used artificial intelligence to rewrite her professional summary using "masculine-oriented" language
• Finally, she recycled previous content with similar "assertive" style

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

The Downside

Despite the success, Cornish expressed unhappiness with the approach.

"Previously, my content were more personal - concise and clever, but also warm and relatable," she stated. "Currently, the masculine version was forceful and confident - like a white male being overly confident."

She abandoned the experiment after seven days, stating "Every day I persisted, and results got better, I became more frustrated."

Varying Outcomes

Not all participants experienced favorable outcomes. Cass Cooper who modified both her gender to "male" and her race to "Caucasian" described a decrease in reach and engagement.

"We understand there's systemic preference, but it's very challenging to understand how it functions in particular situations or why," she commented.

Wider Consequences

These experiments coincide with ongoing conversations about LinkedIn's unique position as both a business platform and community site.

Recent changes in recent months have reportedly resulted in female creators experiencing significantly reduced exposure, resulting in unofficial tests where the same content by men and women received dramatically unequal audience engagement.

System Details

Per LinkedIn, the platform uses AI systems to classify and spread content based on various elements, including post content and the member's career profile.

The company claims it regularly evaluates its algorithms, including "checks for gender-related disparities."

Company representative suggested that current reductions in some users' reach might originate from increased competition due to more content on the network.

Evolving Environment

As one participant noted, "masculine-oriented language" appears to be increasing on the network.

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