đź”— Share this article LinkedIn Visibility Surge: Women Find Success By Presenting as Men Do your LinkedIn connections viewing you as a thought leader? Are hordes of respondents applauding your advice on expanding your business? Do recruiters making contact to discuss collaborations? Should that not be the case, the reason might be your gender. The Test: Modifying Profile Gender to achieve Increased Reach Dozens of women joined a collective professional network test recently after viral posts suggested that changing their profile gender to "male" enhanced their network presence. Some participants modified their profiles to include what they called "masculine-oriented" language - inserting action-focused professional jargon like "propel", "revolutionize" and "expedite". Anecdotally, their exposure similarly increased. Algorithmic Bias Questions Brought Up The engagement increase has caused some to wonder whether a built-in gender bias in the platform's system prioritizes male users who employ online business jargon. Similar to many large social media platforms, LinkedIn employs a computerized system to determine which posts appear to which users - promoting some while reducing others. Company Statement Through a blog post, LinkedIn acknowledged the trend but stated it does not consider "personal characteristics" when determining content distribution. Instead, the company mentioned that "hundreds of signals" influence how posts are received. Changing gender on your profile does not affect how your posts shows up in search or feed. Individual Results Simone Bonnett, who modified her pronouns to "he/him" and her profile name to "Simon E", reported remarkable results. "The numbers I'm seeing indicate a 1,600% increase in profile views and a thirteen-fold jump in impressions," she commented. Another professional, a marketing expert, started testing after noticing her audience decrease significantly. The Method Initially, she changed her profile gender to "man" Then, she used artificial intelligence to rephrase her professional summary using "masculine-oriented" language Lastly, she recycled previous content with similar "agentic" language The outcome was instantaneous: a 415% increase in reach within seven days. The Negative Aspect Despite the positive results, Cornish voiced dissatisfaction with the method. "Before, my posts were more personal - concise and clever, but also friendly and human," she stated. "Now, the masculine version was assertive and confident - like a white male being overly confident." She discontinued the test after one week, stating "Each day I continued, and outcomes got better, I became more frustrated." Varying Outcomes Not all participants encountered favorable results. One writer who changed both her gender to "male" and her race to "Caucasian" reported a decrease in reach and engagement. "We know there's systemic preference, but it's extremely difficult to understand how it operates in specific cases or the reasons behind it," she remarked. Wider Consequences These experiments coincide with ongoing conversations about LinkedIn's unique position as both a professional network and social space. Recent changes in the past few months have reportedly caused female creators experiencing significantly reduced exposure, leading to unofficial tests where identical posts by male and female users received dramatically unequal audience engagement. System Details Per LinkedIn, the platform uses artificial intelligence to categorize and spread content based on various elements, including what's shared and the member's career profile. The company claims it frequently assesses its systems, including "checks for inequalities based on gender." Company representative proposed that current reductions in certain members' visibility might originate from higher volume due to additional posts on the platform. Changing Landscape According to a tester noted, "masculine-oriented language" appears to be increasing on the network. "Users typically consider LinkedIn as more businesslike and refined," she commented. "That's changing. It's becoming increasingly competitive and less controlled."