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Do your LinkedIn followers recognizing you as a industry expert? Do numerous respondents applauding your advice on growing your venture? Do recruiters reaching out to explore collaborations?

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

The Experiment: Changing Profile Gender to achieve Better Visibility

Dozens of women participated in an organized professional network test recently following popular discussions indicated that switching their profile gender to "male" enhanced their network presence.

Other testers rewrote their professional summaries to include what they called "bro-coded" terminology - inserting action-focused business buzzwords like "propel", "revolutionize" and "expedite". Based on reports, their exposure similarly increased.

Algorithmic Bias Questions Raised

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

Similar to most major networking sites, LinkedIn utilizes a computerized system to determine which content are shown to which users - boosting some while suppressing others.

Company Statement

In a recent company announcement, LinkedIn recognized the phenomenon but claimed it does not consider "personal characteristics" when determining post visibility. Rather, the company mentioned that "hundreds of signals" affect how content are received.

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

Individual Results

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

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

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

The Process

• First, she modified her profile gender to "man"
• Then, she used AI tools to rewrite her profile using "male-coded" wording
• Lastly, she repurposed old posts with similar "agentic" language

The result was immediate: a 415% increase in visibility within seven days.

The Downside

Despite the success, Cornish expressed unhappiness with the method.

"Before, my posts were more personal - concise and insightful, but also friendly and human," she explained. "Currently, the bro-coded version was forceful and confident - like a white male being overly confident."

She abandoned the experiment after seven days, stating "Every day I continued, and results improved, I became angrier."

Mixed Results

Not all testers experienced positive results. One writer who changed both her profile gender to "male" and her ethnicity to "Caucasian" reported a decrease in visibility and engagement.

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

Wider Consequences

These tests coincide with continuing discussions about LinkedIn's unique role as both a professional network and social space.

Platform modifications in the past few months have reportedly caused female creators experiencing significantly reduced visibility, leading to unofficial tests where the same content by men and women received vastly different reach.

Technical Explanation

Per LinkedIn, the platform uses artificial intelligence to categorize and spread content 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."

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

Evolving Environment

According to a tester noted, "bro-coding" appears to be increasing on the platform.

"People often view LinkedIn as more professional and polished," she remarked. "That's changing. It's becoming increasingly aggressive and unpredictable."