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Do your LinkedIn followers recognizing you as a industry expert? Are hordes of commenters praising your insights on growing your business? Do recruiters making contact to explore collaborations?

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

The Test: Changing Profile Gender for Better Visibility

Numerous female professionals joined an organized LinkedIn experiment recently following viral posts suggested that changing their gender to "man" boosted their network presence.

Other testers rewrote their profiles to include what they termed "masculine-oriented" terminology - adding action-focused business buzzwords like "propel", "transform" and "accelerate". Based on reports, their exposure similarly increased.

Systemic Preference Questions Raised

The improved metrics has led some to speculate whether a built-in sexism in the platform's system favors men who use professional networking terminology.

Similar to most major social media platforms, LinkedIn employs a computerized system to decide which posts appear to which users - boosting some while reducing others.

Platform Response

Through a blog post, LinkedIn acknowledged the phenomenon but claimed it does not consider "demographic information" when determining post visibility. Rather, the company explained that "hundreds of signals" influence how posts perform.

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

Personal Experiences

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

"The numbers I'm seeing indicate a sixteen-fold rise in visitor traffic and a thirteen-fold jump in content views," she noted.

Another professional, a marketing expert, began experimenting after noticing her reach decline significantly.

The Process

• First, she modified her gender to "man"
• Then, she used AI tools to rephrase her professional summary using "masculine-oriented" wording
• Finally, she repurposed previous content with comparable "agentic" language

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

The Downside

Despite the success, Cornish expressed dissatisfaction with the method.

"Before, my content were softer - brief and clever, but also friendly and human," she stated. "Currently, the masculine version was assertive and confident - like a white male being overly confident."

She abandoned the test after one week, stating "Every day I persisted, and results improved, I became angrier."

Varying Outcomes

Some testers encountered positive results. One writer who changed both her profile gender to "man" and her ethnicity to "white" described a decrease in visibility and interaction.

"We understand there's systemic preference, but it's extremely difficult to understand how it operates in particular situations or why," she commented.

Wider Consequences

These experiments occur alongside continuing conversations about LinkedIn's distinctive role as both a professional network and community site.

Platform modifications in recent months have apparently caused women professionals experiencing significantly reduced visibility, leading to informal experiments where the same content by male and female users received vastly different audience engagement.

Technical Explanation

According to LinkedIn, the platform uses artificial intelligence to classify and distribute content based on multiple factors, including what's shared and the user's professional identity.

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

A spokesperson proposed that recent declines in some users' reach might stem from higher volume due to more content on the platform.

Changing Landscape

As one participant noted, "masculine-oriented language" appears to be increasing on the network.

"People often view LinkedIn as more businesslike and polished," she remarked. "This is evolving. It's turning into increasingly aggressive and less controlled."