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Are your professional networking followers viewing you as a thought leader? Are hordes of commenters applauding your advice on growing your venture? Are headhunters reaching out to explore opportunities?

Should that not be the case, the explanation could be your gender.

The Experiment: Changing Gender Identity to achieve Better Visibility

Dozens of female professionals participated in an organized professional network test this week following viral posts indicated that switching their gender to "man" enhanced their platform visibility.

Other testers rewrote their professional summaries to include what they termed "masculine-oriented" language - inserting results-driven professional jargon like "propel", "revolutionize" and "accelerate". Anecdotally, their exposure also improved.

Systemic Preference Questions Raised

The engagement increase has led some to speculate whether a built-in sexism in LinkedIn's algorithm favors men who employ online business jargon.

Similar to many large networking sites, LinkedIn utilizes a computerized system to decide which content appear to which users - promoting some while suppressing others.

Company Statement

In a recent company announcement, LinkedIn recognized the trend but stated it does not factor in "demographic information" when deciding content distribution. Rather, the company mentioned that "hundreds of signals" affect how content perform.

Modifying profile gender on your profile does not affect how your content shows up in results or timelines.

Personal Experiences

Simone Bonnett, who changed her pronouns to "male pronouns" and her name to "Simon E", described remarkable outcomes.

"The statistics I'm observing indicate a sixteen-fold rise in visitor traffic and a thirteen-fold jump in impressions," she commented.

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

The Method

• First, she changed her gender to "male"
• Then, she used AI tools to rephrase her profile using "male-coded" language
• Lastly, she repurposed old posts with comparable "agentic" language

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

The Negative Aspect

Despite the success, Cornish voiced dissatisfaction with the approach.

"Before, my content were more personal - concise and insightful, but also friendly and human," she stated. "Now, the masculine version was assertive and self-assured - like a Caucasian man being overly confident."

She abandoned the experiment after seven days, saying "Each day I continued, and results got better, I became angrier."

Varying Outcomes

Not all testers experienced positive outcomes. One writer who changed both her gender to "man" and her race to "Caucasian" described a decrease in reach and engagement.

"We know there's algorithmic bias, but it's extremely difficult to understand how it functions in specific cases or why," she remarked.

Wider Consequences

These tests coincide with continuing conversations about LinkedIn's distinctive position as both a business platform and social space.

Platform modifications in the past few months have reportedly resulted in women professionals experiencing significantly reduced exposure, resulting in informal experiments where the same posts by male and female users received vastly different reach.

Technical Explanation

Per LinkedIn, the platform uses AI systems to categorize and distribute posts based on various elements, including post content and the member's career profile.

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

A spokesperson suggested that recent declines in some users' reach might stem from increased competition due to more content on the platform.

Evolving Environment

According to a tester observed, "masculine-oriented language" appears to be increasing on the network.

"People often view LinkedIn as more businesslike and refined," she commented. "This is evolving. It's turning into increasingly aggressive and unpredictable."