Professional Network Engagement Boost: Women Find Better Results When Pretending as Men

Are your LinkedIn followers recognizing you as a industry expert? Are hordes of respondents applauding your insights on growing your venture? Do recruiters reaching out to explore opportunities?

If not, the explanation could be your gender.

The Experiment: Changing Profile Gender to achieve Better Visibility

Dozens of women participated in an organized professional network test this week following viral posts suggested that switching their profile gender to "male" enhanced their network presence.

Some participants rewrote their professional summaries to include what they called "masculine-oriented" language - adding results-driven professional jargon like "drive", "transform" and "expedite". Anecdotally, their exposure also improved.

Systemic Preference Questions Brought Up

The improved metrics has caused some to wonder whether a built-in sexism in LinkedIn's algorithm prioritizes male users who employ professional networking terminology.

Similar to most major networking sites, LinkedIn employs an algorithm to decide which content are shown to which members - boosting some while suppressing others.

Platform Response

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

Changing gender on your profile does not affect how your posts appears in search or feed.

Personal Experiences

Simone Bonnett, who modified her gender identifiers to "he/him" and her profile name to "a masculine version", described remarkable outcomes.

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

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

The Process

• First, she modified her profile gender to "man"
• Subsequently, she used AI tools to rephrase her profile using "male-coded" language
• Lastly, she repurposed previous content with similar "assertive" language

The outcome was instantaneous: a 415% increase in reach within seven days.

The Negative Aspect

Despite the success, Cornish voiced unhappiness with the method.

"Before, my posts were more personal - concise and insightful, but also warm and human," she explained. "Now, the bro-coded version was assertive and confident - similar to a Caucasian man being overly confident."

She discontinued the test after one week, stating "Each day I continued, and outcomes got better, I became more frustrated."

Mixed Results

Some testers experienced positive outcomes. One writer who changed both her profile gender to "male" and her race to "white" reported a decrease in visibility and engagement.

"We understand there's algorithmic bias, but it's very challenging to understand how it operates in specific cases or the reasons behind it," she commented.

Wider Consequences

These tests occur alongside continuing conversations about LinkedIn's unique role as both a professional network and community site.

Platform modifications in the past few months have apparently resulted in women professionals experiencing markedly lower visibility, leading to informal experiments where identical content by men and women received vastly different audience engagement.

System Details

According to LinkedIn, the network uses artificial intelligence to classify and spread posts based on various elements, including post content and the user's professional identity.

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

A spokesperson proposed that current reductions in certain members' visibility might originate from increased competition due to more content on the network.

Changing Landscape

According to a tester observed, "bro-coding" appears to be growing on the network.

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