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Do your professional networking connections recognizing you as a thought leader? Are hordes of commenters praising your insights on expanding your business? Are headhunters making contact to discuss collaborations?

If not, the explanation could be that you're not male.

The Test: Changing Profile Gender to achieve Better Visibility

Dozens of women joined an organized professional network test this week following popular discussions indicated that switching their gender to "male" boosted their platform visibility.

Other testers rewrote their professional summaries to incorporate what they termed "bro-coded" terminology - adding results-driven business buzzwords like "propel", "transform" and "expedite". Anecdotally, their visibility similarly increased.

Algorithmic Bias Concerns Raised

The improved metrics has led some to speculate whether an inherent sexism in LinkedIn's algorithm favors men who use professional networking terminology.

Similar to many large social media platforms, LinkedIn utilizes an algorithm to decide which posts appear to which users - promoting some while suppressing others.

Company Statement

Through a company announcement, LinkedIn acknowledged the phenomenon but stated it does not consider "personal characteristics" 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 posts appears in search or feed.

Individual Results

A social media consultant, who changed her gender identifiers to "male pronouns" and her name to "a masculine version", reported remarkable outcomes.

"The numbers I'm observing indicate a sixteen-fold rise in profile views and a thirteen-fold jump in impressions," she noted.

Another professional, a marketing expert, started testing after observing her audience decrease substantially.

The Method

• Initially, she modified her gender to "male"
• Then, she used artificial intelligence to rephrase her profile using "male-coded" wording
• Lastly, she recycled previous content with similar "agentic" language

The result was immediate: a more than fourfold rise in visibility within seven days.

The Negative Aspect

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

"Before, my posts were softer - concise and clever, but also friendly and human," she explained. "Currently, the bro-coded version was assertive and self-assured - like a white male swaggering around."

She discontinued the test after seven days, stating "Each day I persisted, and outcomes got better, I became angrier."

Mixed Results

Not all participants encountered positive results. One writer who changed both her profile gender to "man" and her ethnicity to "Caucasian" reported a reduction in reach and interaction.

"We know there's algorithmic bias, but it's extremely difficult to comprehend how it operates in particular situations or the reasons behind it," she remarked.

Broader Implications

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

Recent changes in recent months have reportedly caused women professionals experiencing significantly reduced visibility, leading to informal experiments where the same posts by male and female users received vastly different audience engagement.

System Details

Per LinkedIn, the network uses AI systems to classify and distribute posts based on various elements, including what's shared and the user's professional identity.

The company states it regularly evaluates its systems, including "checks for inequalities based on gender."

Company representative suggested that recent declines in some users' reach might originate from increased competition due to additional posts on the platform.

Changing Landscape

As one participant noted, "bro-coding" appears to be growing on the platform.

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