🔗 Share this article Professional Network Visibility Surge: Women Discover Better Results By Presenting to be Men Are your professional networking followers viewing you as a industry expert? Are hordes of respondents applauding your insights on expanding your business? Do recruiters making contact to explore collaborations? If not, the reason might be that you're not male. The Experiment: Modifying Profile Gender to achieve Increased Reach Dozens of female professionals participated in an organized professional network test this week following popular discussions indicated that switching their profile gender to "male" boosted their network presence. Some participants rewrote their profiles to incorporate what they called "masculine-oriented" language - inserting action-focused business buzzwords like "propel", "revolutionize" and "accelerate". Based on reports, their visibility also improved. Systemic Preference Questions Raised The engagement increase has led some to speculate whether an inherent sexism in LinkedIn's algorithm favors men who use online business jargon. Similar to many large networking sites, LinkedIn utilizes an algorithm to decide which content appear to which users - promoting some while reducing others. Platform Response In a recent company announcement, LinkedIn acknowledged the phenomenon but stated it does not factor in "personal characteristics" when determining content distribution. Instead, the company mentioned that "numerous factors" influence how content are received. Modifying profile gender on your profile does not affect how your content shows up in results or timelines. Personal Experiences A social media consultant, who changed her pronouns to "he/him" and her name to "a masculine version", described remarkable outcomes. "The numbers I'm seeing indicate a sixteen-fold rise in visitor traffic and a 1,300% increase in content views," she noted. Another professional, a communications strategist, started testing after noticing her audience decrease substantially. The Process Initially, she changed her gender to "male" Subsequently, she used artificial intelligence to rewrite her profile using "male-coded" language Lastly, she recycled previous content with comparable "agentic" style The result was instantaneous: a 415% increase in visibility within seven days. The Downside Although the positive results, Cornish voiced dissatisfaction with the method. "Previously, my content were more personal - concise and clever, but also friendly and relatable," she stated. "Now, the bro-coded version was forceful and confident - similar to a white male swaggering around." She abandoned the experiment after seven days, stating "Each day I continued, and results improved, I became angrier." Mixed Results Not all participants experienced positive outcomes. Cass Cooper who changed both her gender to "man" and her ethnicity to "Caucasian" reported a decrease in reach and interaction. "We understand there's algorithmic bias, but it's extremely difficult to comprehend how it operates in specific cases or the reasons behind it," she remarked. Broader Implications These tests occur alongside ongoing conversations about LinkedIn's unique role as both a business platform and social space. Recent changes in the past few months have apparently resulted in women professionals experiencing markedly lower visibility, resulting in unofficial tests where the same posts by men and women received dramatically unequal reach. System Details According to LinkedIn, the platform uses AI systems to categorize and distribute content based on multiple factors, including post content and the member's career profile. The company states it frequently assesses its algorithms, including "examinations of inequalities based on gender." Company representative proposed that current reductions in some users' reach might originate from higher volume due to more content on the platform. Changing Landscape According to a tester noted, "bro-coding" appears to be increasing on the platform. "People often view LinkedIn as more businesslike and refined," she remarked. "That's changing. It's turning into increasingly competitive and unpredictable."