What does the LinkedIn gender divide say about adland?
Red Engine’s Kate Richardson has been conducting an experiment, and the results reveal an uncomfortable truth about an industry where five out of six leadership positions are filled by men.
Last Monday morning I scrolled through my LinkedIn feed and noticed a lot of male faces staring back at me. This got me thinking, so I went back to the top, counted the first 50 individual posts, and discovered that 41 were by men, and nine by women.
For clarity, my count included posts by individuals which appeared in my feed by commenting, sharing or direct posting, but excluded those that made their way there via likes.
Men post more than women on LinkedIn.
Could’ve just said that.
Hmmm. 700+ connections. counted back and pretty much 50/50 for last 50 odd posts. I was surprised as I thought there’d be more female posts.
Might say something about the connections we choose to make.
“Last Monday morning I scrolled through my LinkedIn feed…”
There’s your problem right there…
Great read Kate.. I myself just did a quick review of my own LinkedIn feed…MMMMMMFMMMFMM…I never realised but you raise a really interesting point…Now I don’t think I’ll look at my feed the same again…Which is a good thing
If your recommendation is that we talk about this, but to what end?
Men should stop posting? Women should start posting?
What?
I don’t imagine that there are many who have the time to conduct such pointless exercises as counting heads and gender. The nursing world has far too many women if you look into it, so also does the public service. Reception desks are almost overloaded with females, and the garbage collectors are overwhelmingly men, as are dockers and bricklayers and etc. This head counting and carping about office behaviour and work place equality etc is a waffling and slightly debilitating exercise, which ignores the broader issues, and masks real problems in our society, such as dishonesty and fear mongering and blatant abuse of human beings, of any gender or sexual preference, by the powers that be.
We are human beings, we are all different, but we are divided (roughly) into two groups, male and female, and the business of being either has always been a highly individual occupation. We are not all the same, we perform differently depending upon our evolutionary blue print, and we have coexisted for thousands of years because of our differences, not in spite of them.
Red Engine’s management meeting…
‘how can we get some more PR for ourselves…raise our profile?’
‘I know, let’s write a gender article for Mumbrella’
‘hasn’t that been done to death?’
‘yes, but they’re always happy to flog that horse some more’
‘how can we put a different spin on it? to make it look like we have something new to say’
‘hmmm’
‘we could create some spurious and hard to check facts…maybe from a social media forum and then use those to try to argue our point?’
‘AWESOME!’
One day only: 30men/20women
Do some actual work Kate
Last 50 posts: 38/50 male.
Last 50 connections: 32/50 male.
Certainly a male skew, but this appears to be driven by connections not posting behaviour, at least in my feed.
It is interesting data. These things can be interpreted many ways. If we look at numbers in isolation then we can make them mean lots of different things but the topic certainly is worth exploring more deeply.
It is common for people of different genders to find themselves in roles of a certain type; as we find personality types polarised into certain roles too.
I do think that there is one thing that this data does tell us and that is that men are more comfortable to promote themselves, and potentially they allow each other to do so without negatively commenting and pulling them down (or not as often). I think we are a ‘tall poppy’ community and men are not immune to being pulled down either however.
The statistic that men are more likely to self promote (if that’s what we call being active on LinkedIn) is similar to their confidence in applying for jobs as seen here:
https://hbr.org/2014/08/why-women-dont-apply-for-jobs-unless-theyre-100-qualified
It is clear women are in a position, for whatever reason, that we don’t feel we can speak up for our abilities.
I can vouch for the fact that when I’ve spoken out, I’ve had to endure some back lash and worst of all some passive aggressive side shuffling! It is time we made change about this.
Every small step has to help. I think we do need to be careful that we focus on the right things in the process. Let’s start with women getting more confidence, men getting their own sense of power back so they know how to deal with women without pulling them down or pushing them aside.
There is a significant focus here on ‘self-promotion’. The cycle of publishing & engagement, often outside of hours and consistent on weekends from my network, is also very passionately driven – equally to the benefit to the community, beyond merely self or company. Confidence, opinionated, passionate, going beyond… all part of the mix. I found it interesting having gone to a fair few female founder evening pitch events recently and was surprised at how many men turned up to support vs very few females. Similarly, for an innovation meet-up event with amazing guests on a Sunday, where a female colleague noted the lack of females (perhaps 4/100). I responded with how much of a lunatic you would have to be (including us) to spend a Sunday like this. Food for thought.
Great write up, Kate. Some really keen insights. I was just reading myself about the inherent biases in algorithms and AI that no one is taking note of or fixing.
Outside of your reasoning, women are still hesitant to post and contribute more often because of the exact kind of comments you are getting. Something you rarely see in any posts where men are OP.
Mumbrella, the trolling of any post that talks about gender is getting out of control. Should probably consider moderating or getting rid of all comments altogether. You’re also contributing to the abundance of hostile online spaces like Twitter and Youtube. Constructive criticism is always welcomed, but not when it is clearly targeted and without merit.
It would be great if LinkedIn could employ editors (human or algo) to enable their platform to banish the utter self promoting drivel from it’s platform.
Nearly everyone of these brainless posts are by people who seem to have a variety of job titles, such as: author, speaker, mentor, expert, oh and do not forget entrepreneur… Also be careful of the CEO’s who employ one (themselves) and turn over feck all in revenue.
It would be a great if a free punch in the face could be directed to posters who talk about what time they wake in the morning. Another to people regurgitating Branson quotes.
Perhaps women are smarter than men? ‘Empty vessels make the most noise’ and all that?
As predicted, the usual barrage of negativity.
It’s a little experiment that highlights a much bigger story.
Thanks to the people who’ve contacted me and said as much.
It’s unfortunate other people continue to miss that point entirely.
And a good reason to continue talking about it.
Hi Kate
Thanks for taking the time to write the post and I’m sorry you have to cop the rubbish in some of these comments. I agree with “Cue all the idiotic comments” and am getting sick of ridiculous / negative and downright insulting comments from people who hide behind anonymity when posting.
Cheers.
I waded through my feed and copped men v women 5-2. Definitely substance in what your are writing Kate. Remember also that tone cannot be communicated very well in written word. It is a very good spot and my guts says men have the confidence to spurt. Perhaps? Sadly, as a result of being put first, so to speak… Keep spotted patterns and writing about them; it’s great!
Hi Kate
I thought it was interesting analysis and goes a long to show why there were only two women in the Top Ten of the Linkedin Agency Influencer program in 2016. As you know, I was one of them, which was basically because of one successful blog post that got a lot of views and carried me through, but generally speaking in order to make the cut you do have to work consistently at getting your numbers and while I don’t know all the vagaries of the algorithm I’ve no doubt it favours those who post often and collect a massive network. This does mean putting yourself out there in a way that men seem to be more comfortable / confident with than women.
Its the same conundrum facing conference organisers whereby women are less likely to put themselves forward to speak, and less likely to accept offers to speak. I do some speaking and I have been approached by other women who want to do it, but aren’t sure they’re good enough. And I can’t blame them to be honest when you see some of the feedback women get for offering their opinions in a public space. You have to have a very thick skin. Some of those commenting here probably think Saudi Arabia allowing women into sporting events is feminist madness.
FWIW Linkedin have made a lot of effort to get more women involved in the Agency Influencer program this year, and there are definitely more women coming through in the rankings which is fantastic to see.
What barrage of negativity? There are some people who question your point of view – the minority I think.
I want to start this comment by noting that I love women. I have a daughter and a wife (who is my hero for what she has done for our family and raising our daughter), I have two sisters, and a female manager who I love and respect – and many of the senior leaders in the business I work for locally and internationally are women – and they all do an amazing job.
But the question I pose is – do women need to take some of the responsibility for women not wanting to self promote? And here’s why…
Growing up with my sisters, and also in my own peer groups at school – I never saw bullying amongst guys, or guys towards girls, as what I saw of girls towards girls. Or the stories of bullying my wife tells me about having gone to an all girls school.
Unless you were one of the “popular” girls, you were howled down if you were good at anything. Girls who were intelligent and contributed in class were laughed at by other girls, were locked in toilet cubicles (or worse have their head flushed in it), had their books and pencil cases emptied and thrown in bins.
If you were good at sport, you were labelled “Butch” or a “Leso” (excuse the terminology – but that’s what young girls said).
You could be kicked out of friendship circles, uninvited to parties, or made to feel a social outcast for the smallest of things – such as helping one of the bullied kids retrieve their pencil case from a bin.
Guys would often have a punch on and it be over with. But with girls this can go on for years and years.
Then in the workplace, the cattiness I’ve seen from women when another woman gets promoted – rather than celebrating their achievement – is beyond belief at times. And the bitchiness I have seen that goes on behind each others backs can be ludicrous.
I’m not going to make any excuses for the pay gap – women doing the same job as men should be paid the same – but in relation to the premise of this article, it’s any wonder that a lot of women prefer not to self promote or be seen to be trying to get ahead for fear of the backlash from other women.
From what I’ve seen with my own eyes, and what I saw with my sisters growing up, the stories from my wife’s experiences, and now with the advent of social media, I worry the situations I’m going to have to help my daughter through as she grows up.
I want to start this comment by noting I love women. I know they have vaginas. And utereses. And breasts. Wait, is it ‘uterii’? I don’t want to offend them. I love women.
All I can say to a comment like that is LOL – as it’s so typical. The type of comment to try and undermine the premise of a statement like this to try and make me look like a woman hater to dismiss my argument – despite me being 100% sincere in what I said about the women in my life.
And by no means did I make that statement as a means of not offending. As per the name I used – I knew this would be an unpopular viewpoint – and would probably offend some people.
I would hope that people would see and understand there are a lot of important women in my life, and a lot of women that I work with – and all of the things I wrote about I’ve seen first hand, or helped support and pick up the pieces afterwards.
I’m not saying that sexism and inequality doesn’t exist in the workplace – it does – and more needs to be done in that regard. But the undertone of this article was that there’s this inequality, and it’s all seems to have something to do with men. But anybody that won’t accept that the sorts of things I mentioned occurring in the lives of women, contributed to by other women, don’t have some sort of affect on the way women approach situations in the workplace is either ignorant or pushing an agenda.
But well done on trying to undermine the love I have for the women in my life.
Good for you Kate in creating this exercise and penning it. It takes courage ! Naysayers keep looking in the mirror – am sure someone will believe you.
Don’t worry about whether the algorithm is skewing male.
Worry about the fact Linkedin has given a platform to any number of industry wankers who now fancy themselves as thought leaders and mistake volume of posts for quality opinion.
^ plus one for that they said.
LinkedIn should offer daily posters of ‘splurging shite’ EQ tests; perhaps that will reign in the BS brigade?
I put Red Engine up on the dyno … running on only three cylinders.
Mr the Mechanic…How is running on three cylinders a problem?
ever heard of the Triumphs, Speed Triple / Street Triple / Daytona?
It’s the best compromise power/torque…
a bit off topic…..
Good to see we’re tackling the big issues – gender bias in LinkedIn posting rates.
I happened to be looking at ABS 4125.0 – Gender Indicators, Australia, Feb 2016.
One paragraph that stood out was in the Health Section …
Death rates
The standardised death rate for males and females in 2014 was 6.4 and 4.6 deaths per 1,000 people, respectively. This rate has been generally declining for both males and females over the past 15 years, continuing a long established trend.
Males have higher age-specific death rates than females in all age groups from 15-19 years, ranging from one and a half times to more than double those of females (see Table 3.12 for details).
Rates by condition/cause of death
In 2013, males were one and a half times more likely than females to die from cancer, and almost twice as likely as females to die from Ischaemic heart disease.
The suicide rate for males was at least three times higher than females, death rates from motor vehicle accidents were nearly three times higher, and drug-induced death rates were over one and half times higher than those of females (see Figure 4 below, and Tables 3.12 to 3.21 via the Downloads tab for more detail).
OK … now back to the important stuff … LinkedIn posting rates.
Today I stood at a set of traffic lights in Surry Hills, next to a new construction section of the Light Rail and noticed there was a distinct lack of male $65 per hour (+ danger and penalty rates loading) traffic controllers staring back at me…
and your point is?
But on the mindless celebrity sites the vast majority of posters are female.
Doesn’t the LinkedIn algo surface contributors you have interacted with (or are likely to interact with) to the top of your feed?
Reasons for imbalance:
1. There are more men in senior positions in the workforce. People in senior positions are encouraged to post more (the average CEO has a marketing team behind “his” posts)
2. Men tend to be more self-promoting than women, because for prevailing cultural reasons, women are still expected to be “quieter”
3. Possible: women may be spending more time on other social networks, leaving them less time for LinkedIn. I know many professional woman who use Pinterest and similar quite extensively. Even if that’s in leisure time, it may lead to “social media fatigue” that reduces their input on other channels
4. Possible: need for interaction/feedback/approval: LinkedIn posts tend to attract less “Likes” and comments than the average post on Facebook that has friends and family falling all over it. This may act as a disincentive for people whose posts do gratifyingly well on Facebook to post on LinkedIn. Women use Facebook more than men, so if this is a factor in LinkedIn disengagement, you would expect to see it affecting women more
Gender equality for women is best served by creating opportunity. In the event marketing agency world, it’s old-school males (some in their 30’s and already old-school) who know precisely the right language to use to pretend, then they behave patronisingly towards women, denying them real opportunities and treating some as decorations. I’ve seen it for over 20 years, and its especially shocking when the perpetrators are born after 1980. But even more surprisingly I see women in management “kicking out the ladder” behind them, even more forcefully denying opportunities to women of talent who threaten them. This won’t be solved by numerical analysis. It can be solved by making advancement of women into senior roles a KPI for management. Missed your KPI? You miss your bonus and advancement.
I write a lot of LinkedIn posts – for the senior men in various large and small organizations. I would be interested to know how many of the posts you read are written by the men who officially post them. Most will be really written by “PR specialists” and “social media specialists” and posted in the executives name.
I have worked in corporate communications for 25 years, and I have yet to meet a top executive who writes his own speeches, or the FD or CEO report in the annual report, or anything else AT ALL. On a good day you get a few incoherent sentences (which you later find are misquoted from the Wall Street Journal) and it is your job to come up with something brilliant and inspiring that gets a whole lot of likes and shares.
THE ETERNAL CYCLE
A woman writes an article bemoaning the poor treatment, or the lousy lot of women in commerce, the work place, and/or the world in general. A varying number of women chip in support for the article. A man, or a number of men, reply with a different point of view. Women return to the opinion piece, damning the man or men for daring to hold a contrary point of view, or in some cases even for writing at all, and of course, according to the women, the men are always wrong, and if they happen to be too strong in their opinions, they are branded Misogynists.