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Do your professional networking connections viewing you as a industry expert? Are hordes of commenters praising your advice on growing your business? Do recruiters making contact to discuss opportunities?

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

The Experiment: Changing Profile Gender for Increased Reach

Numerous women joined a collective professional network test this week following viral posts suggested that changing their profile gender to "man" boosted their platform visibility.

Some participants modified their profiles to incorporate what they termed "bro-coded" language - inserting action-focused professional jargon like "drive", "transform" and "accelerate". Based on reports, their exposure also improved.

Systemic Preference Concerns Brought Up

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

Like many large networking sites, LinkedIn utilizes an algorithm to determine which posts are shown to which members - boosting some while suppressing others.

Company Statement

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

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

Individual Results

Simone Bonnett, who changed her pronouns to "he/him" and her name to "Simon E", reported remarkable results.

"The numbers I'm observing indicate a sixteen-fold rise in visitor traffic and a 1,300% increase in impressions," she noted.

Another professional, a marketing expert, started testing after noticing her audience decline substantially.

The Process

• Initially, she modified her profile gender to "male"
• Then, she used AI tools to rewrite her profile using "masculine-oriented" wording
• Lastly, she recycled previous content with comparable "agentic" language

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

The Negative Aspect

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

"Before, my content were more personal - brief and clever, but also warm and human," she explained. "Now, the bro-coded version was forceful and self-assured - similar to a Caucasian man swaggering around."

She discontinued the test after seven days, stating "Each day I continued, and results got better, I became more frustrated."

Varying Outcomes

Some participants encountered favorable results. One writer who modified both her gender to "man" and her ethnicity to "white" described a reduction in reach and engagement.

"We understand there's systemic preference, but it's very challenging to understand how it operates in particular situations or the reasons behind it," she remarked.

Wider Consequences

These experiments occur alongside continuing discussions about LinkedIn's unique role as both a business platform and community site.

Recent changes in the past few months have apparently caused female creators experiencing markedly lower exposure, resulting in unofficial tests where the same posts by men and women received dramatically unequal reach.

System Details

Per LinkedIn, the platform uses artificial intelligence to classify and distribute posts based on various elements, including what's shared and the member's career profile.

The company states it frequently assesses its systems, including "checks for inequalities based on gender."

A spokesperson suggested that recent declines in some users' reach might originate from higher volume due to more content on the network.

Changing Landscape

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

"Users typically consider LinkedIn as more professional and polished," she commented. "That's changing. It's turning into increasingly aggressive and less controlled."