Professional women across the UK are conducting a startling social experiment on LinkedIn: they're temporarily changing their profiles to present as men to test whether the platform's algorithm favours male users. The trend has sparked intense debate about algorithmic bias and gender equality in professional networking.
The Experiment That Revealed a Pattern
Marketing consultant Tamara Tate from West Sussex first noticed the phenomenon while browsing LinkedIn. Curious about claims that male profiles received significantly more visibility, she decided to join the experiment herself. "I joined the trend out of genuine curiosity," Tamara explained to Metro. "People were saying they had dramatic increases in impressions after switching their gender, and I wanted to test it."
The results were immediate and staggering. Within just 12 hours of changing her profile to present as male, Tamara witnessed her impressions jump by more than 1000%. Even more revealing was that the views weren't just coming from her established network - she was breaking into entirely new audiences that had previously been inaccessible.
"As a marketer, it's frustrating to do this experiment and realise that the quality of your content isn't always the deciding factor," Tamara admitted, highlighting the concerning implications for women trying to build their professional presence online.
Journalist Sees Similar Dramatic Results
Journalist Rosie Turner participated in the same experiment with equally remarkable outcomes. After switching her profile to male, she reached up to 220% more people, with her profile views increasing by 174% and post impressions rising by 195%.
The data became even more compelling when comparing her top-performing posts. Two weeks before the experiment, her best posts received 13,000 and 11,000 views respectively. During her time as "Rosie the man," however, her top posts garnered 52,000 and 21,000 views - a substantial increase that suggests more than mere coincidence.
LinkedIn's Response and Expert Advice
When approached for comment, a LinkedIn spokesperson firmly denied that their algorithms use demographic information to determine content visibility. "Our algorithm and AI systems do not use demographic information such as age, race, or gender as a signal to determine the visibility of content, profiles, or posts in the Feed," the representative stated.
The company added that their product and engineering teams had tested these claims and found that while different posts received varying engagement levels, distribution wasn't influenced by gender, pronouns, or other demographic factors.
Executive coach Beth Hope offered a nuanced perspective, acknowledging that while platforms may not explicitly program gender bias, studies consistently show that male-coded profiles tend to perform better. However, she strongly advises against women feeling pressured to camouflage their identity for reach.
"Women should own their professional identity," Beth insists. "Authenticity helps to build trust, credibility and long-term leadership capital."
Instead of gaming the system, Beth recommends focusing on real stories, clear insights and content that sparks genuine conversation. She emphasises that "purposeful" posting - just one or two quality posts per week - proves more effective than daily content designed purely to appease algorithms.
"In the rush for visibility, we forget what LinkedIn was actually built for, which is genuine connection and long-term career momentum," Beth concludes, reminding professionals that consistency in voice and values ultimately builds the credibility that algorithms cannot measure.
