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Are your professional networking connections viewing you as a thought leader? Are hordes of respondents praising your advice on growing your venture? Do recruiters reaching out to explore collaborations?

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

The Experiment: Changing Profile Gender to achieve Increased Reach

Numerous women participated in a collective LinkedIn experiment this week following viral posts suggested that changing their gender to "man" boosted their platform visibility.

Some participants rewrote their professional summaries to incorporate what they termed "masculine-oriented" terminology - adding action-focused professional jargon like "drive", "revolutionize" and "accelerate". Based on reports, their visibility 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 professional networking terminology.

Similar to most major social media platforms, LinkedIn utilizes an algorithm to decide which posts are shown to which users - promoting some while suppressing others.

Platform Response

In a recent company announcement, LinkedIn acknowledged the trend but stated it does not factor in "demographic information" when deciding post visibility. Instead, the company explained that "hundreds of signals" influence how content are received.

Modifying profile gender in your settings does not affect how your posts shows up in search or feed.

Individual Results

A social media consultant, who changed her gender identifiers to "he/him" and her name to "a masculine version", described extraordinary outcomes.

"The numbers I'm seeing show a 1,600% increase in profile views and a thirteen-fold jump in impressions," she commented.

Another professional, a communications strategist, began experimenting after noticing her reach decline significantly.

The Method

• First, she modified her gender to "male"
• Subsequently, she used artificial intelligence to rephrase her profile using "masculine-oriented" language
• Finally, she repurposed previous content with similar "agentic" language

The result was instantaneous: a more than fourfold rise in visibility within seven days.

The Downside

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

"Previously, my posts were more personal - brief and clever, but also warm and human," she stated. "Currently, the masculine version was assertive and self-assured - similar to a Caucasian man being overly confident."

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

Mixed Results

Some testers experienced favorable results. Cass Cooper who modified both her profile gender to "male" and her race to "Caucasian" reported a decrease in reach and interaction.

"We know there's systemic preference, but it's very challenging to comprehend how it functions in particular situations or why," she remarked.

Wider Consequences

These experiments coincide with continuing conversations about LinkedIn's unique role as both a business platform and community site.

Platform modifications in recent months have reportedly resulted in women professionals experiencing markedly lower exposure, leading to unofficial tests where identical content by men and women received dramatically unequal reach.

Technical Explanation

According to LinkedIn, the network uses AI systems to classify and spread content based on multiple factors, including what's shared and the user's professional identity.

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

Company representative suggested that recent declines in some users' reach might stem from increased competition due to more content on the platform.

Changing Landscape

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

"Users typically consider LinkedIn as more businesslike and refined," she remarked. "That's changing. It's turning into increasingly competitive and unpredictable."