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Do your professional networking connections viewing you as a industry expert? Are hordes of respondents praising your insights on expanding your business? Are headhunters reaching out to explore collaborations?

If not, the explanation could be that you're not male.

The Test: Modifying Profile Gender to achieve Increased Reach

Dozens of women participated in an organized professional network test recently following viral posts suggested that changing their gender to "male" boosted their platform visibility.

Other testers rewrote their professional summaries to incorporate what they called "bro-coded" language - adding results-driven professional jargon like "propel", "revolutionize" and "expedite". Anecdotally, their visibility also improved.

Algorithmic Bias Concerns Brought Up

The improved metrics has led some to speculate whether a built-in gender bias in LinkedIn's algorithm favors men who employ online business jargon.

Similar to many large networking sites, LinkedIn employs an algorithm to decide which posts appear to which users - boosting some while suppressing others.

Platform Response

Through a company announcement, LinkedIn recognized the phenomenon but stated it does not factor in "personal characteristics" when determining post visibility. Rather, the company explained that "hundreds of signals" influence how content are received.

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

Personal Experiences

Simone Bonnett, who modified her gender identifiers to "he/him" and her profile name to "Simon E", described remarkable outcomes.

"The numbers I'm seeing show a sixteen-fold rise in visitor traffic and a 1,300% increase in content views," she noted.

Megan Cornish, a communications strategist, started testing after observing her reach decrease substantially.

The Method

• First, she modified her profile gender to "man"
• Then, she used AI tools to rewrite her professional summary using "male-coded" wording
• Lastly, she repurposed old posts with comparable "assertive" style

The outcome was immediate: a 415% increase in visibility within one week.

The Downside

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

"Before, my content were softer - concise and insightful, but also friendly and relatable," she explained. "Now, the masculine version was assertive and confident - similar to a white male swaggering around."

She abandoned the test after seven days, stating "Every day I continued, and outcomes got better, I became angrier."

Varying Outcomes

Not all testers encountered favorable outcomes. Cass Cooper who modified both her profile gender to "male" and her ethnicity to "Caucasian" reported a reduction in visibility and engagement.

"We know there's systemic preference, but it's very challenging to comprehend how it operates in specific cases or why," she commented.

Broader Implications

These experiments occur alongside ongoing discussions about LinkedIn's distinctive position as both a business platform and social space.

Platform modifications in the past few months have reportedly caused women professionals experiencing markedly lower visibility, leading to informal experiments where identical posts by male and female users received vastly different audience engagement.

System Details

Per LinkedIn, the platform uses artificial intelligence to categorize and spread posts based on various elements, including post content and the user's professional identity.

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

A spokesperson suggested that current reductions in certain members' visibility might stem from increased competition due to additional posts on the platform.

Evolving Environment

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

"Users typically consider LinkedIn as more professional and refined," she commented. "That's changing. It's becoming increasingly aggressive and unpredictable."