🔗 Share this article Professional Network Visibility Boost: Women Find Success By Presenting as Men Are your LinkedIn followers viewing you as a thought leader? Are hordes of respondents praising your advice on growing your venture? Are headhunters reaching out to discuss opportunities? Should that not be the case, the explanation might 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 after popular discussions suggested that switching their profile gender to "man" boosted their platform visibility. Some participants modified their profiles to include what they termed "bro-coded" language - adding action-focused professional jargon like "propel", "revolutionize" and "accelerate". Anecdotally, their exposure also improved. Systemic Preference Concerns Raised The engagement increase has caused some to wonder whether an inherent gender bias in LinkedIn's algorithm prioritizes men who employ professional networking terminology. Like most major social media platforms, LinkedIn utilizes an algorithm to decide which posts are shown to which members - boosting some while suppressing others. Company Statement Through a company announcement, LinkedIn acknowledged the trend but claimed it does not consider "demographic information" when deciding content distribution. Rather, the company explained that "hundreds of signals" influence how posts are received. Changing gender in your settings does not influence how your content shows up in search or feed. Individual Results Simone Bonnett, who changed her pronouns to "male pronouns" and her profile name to "a masculine version", reported extraordinary outcomes. "The statistics I'm observing show a 1,600% increase in profile views and a 1,300% increase in impressions," she commented. Megan Cornish, a marketing expert, began experimenting after noticing her reach decline significantly. The Method Initially, she changed her profile gender to "man" Subsequently, she used artificial intelligence to rephrase her profile using "masculine-oriented" language Lastly, she repurposed old posts with comparable "agentic" language The result was immediate: a more than fourfold rise in visibility within one week. The Downside Despite the success, Cornish expressed dissatisfaction with the method. "Before, my content were more personal - brief and clever, but also friendly and relatable," she explained. "Now, the bro-coded version was assertive and confident - like a Caucasian man swaggering around." She abandoned the test after one week, stating "Each day I continued, and outcomes got better, I became more frustrated." Mixed Results Some participants experienced favorable outcomes. One writer who modified both her profile gender to "male" and her ethnicity to "Caucasian" described a reduction in visibility and interaction. "We know there's systemic preference, but it's extremely difficult to understand how it operates in specific cases or the reasons behind it," she remarked. Wider Consequences These tests occur alongside ongoing discussions about LinkedIn's distinctive position as both a professional network and community site. Platform modifications in recent months have reportedly resulted in female creators experiencing markedly lower exposure, resulting in informal experiments where the same content by male and female users received vastly different audience engagement. System Details Per LinkedIn, the platform uses artificial intelligence to categorize and distribute content based on various elements, including post content and the member's career profile. The company claims it frequently assesses its algorithms, including "checks for gender-related disparities." Company representative suggested that current reductions in some users' reach might originate from higher volume due to additional posts on the platform. Evolving Environment As one participant observed, "masculine-oriented language" appears to be increasing on the platform. "Users typically consider LinkedIn as more businesslike and polished," she remarked. "That's changing. It's becoming increasingly competitive and less controlled."