🔗 Share this article LinkedIn Visibility Boost: Women Discover Success By Pretending to be Men Do your professional networking connections recognizing you as a industry expert? Are hordes of commenters applauding your advice on expanding your venture? Do recruiters making contact to discuss collaborations? If not, the reason could be that you're not male. The Test: Changing Profile Gender to achieve Better Visibility Dozens of women joined a collective professional network test this week following popular discussions indicated that switching their gender to "male" boosted their platform visibility. Other testers rewrote their profiles to incorporate what they called "masculine-oriented" language - adding results-driven professional jargon like "propel", "revolutionize" and "expedite". Based on reports, their exposure also improved. Algorithmic Bias Concerns Raised The engagement increase has caused some to wonder whether an inherent gender bias in LinkedIn's algorithm favors men who employ online business jargon. Similar to many large social media platforms, LinkedIn employs an algorithm to determine which posts appear to which users - promoting some while suppressing others. Company Statement Through a blog post, LinkedIn recognized the phenomenon but claimed it does not factor in "demographic information" when deciding post visibility. Rather, the company mentioned that "hundreds of signals" affect how content are received. Changing gender on your profile does not affect how your posts shows up in search or feed. Individual Results A social media consultant, who modified her pronouns to "he/him" and her name to "Simon E", described extraordinary outcomes. "The numbers I'm seeing show a sixteen-fold rise in visitor traffic and a 1,300% increase in content views," she commented. Another professional, a communications strategist, began experimenting after observing her reach decline significantly. The Method First, she changed her gender to "man" Then, she used AI tools to rewrite her profile using "masculine-oriented" language Finally, she recycled old posts with comparable "agentic" language The outcome was immediate: a more than fourfold rise in reach within seven days. The Downside Although the positive results, Cornish expressed unhappiness with the method. "Previously, my content were softer - brief and clever, but also warm and human," she explained. "Now, the masculine version was forceful and confident - like a Caucasian man being overly confident." She discontinued the experiment after one week, saying "Every day I continued, and results got better, I became angrier." Mixed Results Some participants experienced favorable outcomes. Cass Cooper who changed both her gender to "male" and her race to "Caucasian" described a reduction in reach and engagement. "We know there's systemic preference, but it's extremely difficult to understand how it functions in specific cases or the reasons behind it," she remarked. Broader Implications These tests coincide with ongoing conversations about LinkedIn's unique role as both a business platform and social space. Recent changes in recent months have reportedly caused female creators experiencing markedly lower visibility, leading to informal experiments where identical content by male and female users received vastly different audience engagement. Technical Explanation Per LinkedIn, the network uses AI systems to classify and spread posts based on multiple factors, including post content and the user's professional identity. The company claims it regularly evaluates its systems, including "checks for gender-related disparities." Company representative suggested that current reductions in certain members' visibility might originate from higher volume due to more content on the platform. Evolving Environment As one participant observed, "bro-coding" appears to be increasing on the platform. "Users typically consider LinkedIn as more businesslike and refined," she commented. "That's changing. It's becoming increasingly competitive and unpredictable."