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Do your LinkedIn connections recognizing you as a thought leader? Do numerous commenters applauding your insights on expanding your venture? Are headhunters reaching out to discuss collaborations?

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

The Experiment: Modifying Gender Identity for Better Visibility

Numerous female professionals participated in a collective LinkedIn experiment this week following viral posts indicated that changing their gender to "man" boosted their network presence.

Some participants modified their profiles to include what they termed "bro-coded" language - adding action-focused professional jargon like "propel", "transform" and "accelerate". Anecdotally, their exposure also improved.

Systemic Preference Questions Brought Up

The engagement increase has caused some to wonder whether an inherent sexism in LinkedIn's algorithm prioritizes male users who employ professional networking terminology.

Like many large networking sites, LinkedIn employs an algorithm to decide which posts are shown to which users - boosting some while suppressing others.

Platform Response

Through a company announcement, LinkedIn recognized the phenomenon but claimed it does not consider "personal characteristics" when deciding content distribution. Rather, the company mentioned that "hundreds of signals" influence how content are received.

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

Individual Results

A social media consultant, who changed her pronouns to "male pronouns" and her profile name to "Simon E", described extraordinary results.

"The statistics I'm seeing indicate a sixteen-fold rise in profile views and a 1,300% increase in content views," she commented.

Megan Cornish, a communications strategist, started testing after observing her audience decline substantially.

The Method

• Initially, she modified her profile gender to "man"
• Then, she used artificial intelligence to rephrase her professional summary using "masculine-oriented" wording
• Lastly, she repurposed old posts with comparable "assertive" language

The result was instantaneous: a more than fourfold rise in reach within one week.

The Negative Aspect

Although the success, Cornish expressed unhappiness with the approach.

"Previously, my content were more personal - brief and insightful, but also warm and relatable," she explained. "Now, the bro-coded version was assertive and confident - like a Caucasian man swaggering around."

She discontinued the test after seven days, stating "Every day I persisted, and results got better, I became more frustrated."

Mixed Results

Some participants encountered positive outcomes. One writer who changed both her gender to "man" and her race to "Caucasian" described a decrease in reach and interaction.

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

Broader Implications

These tests occur alongside ongoing discussions about LinkedIn's unique role as both a business platform and community site.

Recent changes in recent months have apparently caused women professionals experiencing markedly lower visibility, leading to unofficial tests where the same posts by male and female users received vastly different reach.

System Details

According to LinkedIn, the network uses artificial intelligence to categorize and spread posts based on multiple factors, including what's shared and the user's professional identity.

The company claims it regularly evaluates its algorithms, including "examinations of inequalities based on gender."

A spokesperson suggested that recent declines in some users' reach might originate from higher volume due to additional posts on the platform.

Evolving Environment

As one participant noted, "bro-coding" appears to be growing on the network.

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