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Do your professional networking followers viewing you as a thought leader? Are hordes of respondents applauding your advice on growing your business? Do recruiters making contact to discuss collaborations?

If not, the reason might be your gender.

The Experiment: Changing Gender Identity for Increased Reach

Numerous female professionals joined a collective professional network test recently following popular discussions suggested that switching their profile gender to "man" boosted their platform visibility.

Other testers rewrote their professional summaries to incorporate what they termed "bro-coded" terminology - inserting action-focused professional jargon like "propel", "transform" and "expedite". Based on reports, their visibility similarly increased.

Algorithmic Bias Concerns Brought Up

The engagement increase has caused some to wonder whether a built-in sexism in LinkedIn's algorithm favors male users who use online business jargon.

Similar to most major social media platforms, LinkedIn utilizes an algorithm to decide which posts appear to which members - boosting some while reducing others.

Company Statement

Through a company announcement, LinkedIn recognized the trend but claimed it does not consider "demographic information" when deciding post visibility. Instead, the company explained that "hundreds of signals" influence how content are received.

Modifying profile gender in your settings does not influence how your posts shows up in results or timelines.

Personal Experiences

A social media consultant, who changed her gender identifiers to "he/him" and her name to "a masculine version", described remarkable results.

"The statistics I'm seeing show a 1,600% increase in profile views and a thirteen-fold jump in content views," she commented.

Megan Cornish, a marketing expert, started testing after observing her audience decline significantly.

The Method

• Initially, she changed her profile gender to "man"
• Subsequently, she used AI tools to rephrase her profile using "male-coded" wording
• Lastly, she recycled old posts with comparable "agentic" language

The outcome was immediate: a more than fourfold rise in reach within one week.

The Negative Aspect

Although the positive results, Cornish voiced dissatisfaction with the approach.

"Before, my posts were softer - brief and clever, but also friendly and relatable," she explained. "Now, the masculine version was assertive and self-assured - like a Caucasian man swaggering around."

She abandoned the test after one week, stating "Each day I continued, and outcomes improved, I became angrier."

Varying Outcomes

Some testers encountered positive outcomes. Cass Cooper who changed both her gender to "male" and her race to "white" described a reduction in visibility and engagement.

"We know there's algorithmic bias, but it's very challenging to comprehend how it operates in specific cases or why," she remarked.

Wider Consequences

These experiments coincide with ongoing discussions about LinkedIn's unique role as both a business platform and social space.

Recent changes in the past few months have apparently caused female creators experiencing markedly lower exposure, leading to informal experiments where identical content by men and women received dramatically unequal reach.

Technical Explanation

According to LinkedIn, the platform uses AI systems to categorize and distribute content based on various elements, including post content and the user's professional identity.

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

A spokesperson proposed that current reductions in some users' reach might stem from increased competition due to additional posts on the network.

Changing Landscape

According to a tester noted, "bro-coding" appears to be growing on the network.

"Users typically consider LinkedIn as more businesslike and refined," she remarked. "This is evolving. It's becoming increasingly competitive and less controlled."