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Are your LinkedIn connections recognizing you as a thought leader? Are hordes of respondents 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: Modifying Gender Identity for Better Visibility

Dozens of female professionals joined a collective LinkedIn experiment this week following viral posts suggested that switching their profile gender to "man" boosted their network presence.

Some participants rewrote their professional summaries to incorporate what they called "masculine-oriented" language - inserting action-focused professional jargon like "propel", "revolutionize" and "accelerate". Anecdotally, their exposure similarly increased.

Algorithmic Bias Questions Raised

The engagement increase has led some to speculate whether an inherent sexism in LinkedIn's algorithm favors men who employ professional networking terminology.

Like most major social media platforms, LinkedIn utilizes a computerized system to determine which content are shown to which users - boosting some while reducing others.

Platform Response

Through a blog post, LinkedIn acknowledged the trend but stated it does not factor in "personal characteristics" when determining content distribution. Rather, the company explained that "numerous factors" influence how posts are received.

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

Individual Results

Simone Bonnett, who modified her gender identifiers to "male pronouns" and her profile name to "a masculine version", described remarkable outcomes.

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

Megan Cornish, a communications strategist, began experimenting after observing her reach decline substantially.

The Method

• First, she modified her profile gender to "man"
• Subsequently, she used artificial intelligence to rewrite her professional summary using "male-coded" language
• Finally, she repurposed previous content with comparable "assertive" language

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

The Negative Aspect

Despite the positive results, Cornish voiced unhappiness with the method.

"Before, my content were softer - brief and clever, but also friendly and relatable," she stated. "Currently, the bro-coded version was assertive and confident - similar to a white male swaggering around."

She discontinued the experiment after one week, stating "Each day I continued, and results got better, I became angrier."

Varying Outcomes

Not all participants experienced favorable results. Cass Cooper who changed both her gender to "male" and her ethnicity to "white" reported a decrease in visibility and engagement.

"We know there's algorithmic bias, but it's very challenging to understand how it operates in particular situations or why," she remarked.

Wider Consequences

These experiments coincide with ongoing conversations about LinkedIn's distinctive role as both a professional network and community site.

Recent changes in recent months have reportedly caused women professionals experiencing markedly lower exposure, leading to informal experiments where identical posts by male and female users received dramatically unequal reach.

Technical Explanation

Per LinkedIn, the network uses AI systems to classify and distribute content based on multiple factors, including post content and the user's professional identity.

The company states it regularly evaluates its algorithms, including "checks for gender-related disparities."

A spokesperson proposed that recent declines in certain members' visibility might stem from higher volume due to additional posts on the platform.

Changing Landscape

As one participant noted, "bro-coding" appears to be increasing on the platform.

"People often view LinkedIn as more businesslike and refined," she commented. "That's changing. It's turning into increasingly aggressive and less controlled."