A CEO Named Andrea Became Andrew on LinkedIn to Avoid Harassment

IB Photography/Shutterstock.com

"It was a subtly different world."

When Australian entrepreneur Andrea Myles doctored her LinkedIn profile— swapping out one letter in her first name, replacing her real photo with a stock image of grey-haired executive, and changing her pronouns from female to male—she could immediately feel her “stock going up,” she says.

“This Andrew bloke seemed to be doing pretty alright, being bilingual and having 15 years experience in China,” Myles writes in an account of her experiment for Mumbrella, an Australian site covering media and marketing.

Myles, the CEO of China Australia Millennial Project (CAMP), which brings together young adults for short “incubator” summits,  spent almost one month playing a male CEO on the jobs site, a trial she launched one day after feeling fed up with random men who sent her inappropriate InMail messages.

“I felt mad, and cornered in my own inbox. That’s where 99% of the sexual harassment on LinkedIn I’ve experienced takes place,” she explains. “In the corners where no one else can see, where the guy’s boss and colleagues can’t view their comments.”

When Myles made herself appear to be male, the creepy messages—a common problem for many women on LinkedIn—ceased, but that wasn’t the only benefit. “Andrew” received “micro-affections,” the opposite of  the “micro-aggressions” endured by women, people of color and other minorities, both in the workplace and on social media.

For instance, people asked her where she worked, not whom she worked for. Strangers stopped challenging her views on China. LinkedIn’s algorithm even seem to respond, she adds. Its invisible hand introduced her to more people in positions of seniority, finding powerful people who deserved to meet this guy:

It was a subtly different world, even though Myles hadn’t changed anything about her speciality, her vocabulary, or the types of posts she shared. When posting as Andrew “about gender equality, I noticed the general lack of men jumping on the thread to exclaim ‘men too’, and I got a LOT of kudos,” Myles writes.

“I felt mad, and cornered in my own inbox. That’s where 99% of the sexual harassment on LinkedIn I’ve experienced takes place,” she explains. “In the corners where no one else can see, where the guy’s boss and colleagues can’t view their comments.”

When Myles made herself appear to be male, the creepy messages—a common problem for many women on LinkedIn—ceased, but that wasn’t the only benefit. “Andrew” received “micro-affections,” the opposite of  the “micro-aggressions” endured by women, people of color and other minorities, both in the workplace and on social media.

For instance, people asked her where she worked, not whom she worked for. Strangers stopped challenging her views on China. LinkedIn’s algorithm even seem to respond, she adds. Its invisible hand introduced her to more people in positions of seniority, finding powerful people who deserved to meet this guy:

It was a subtly different world, even though Myles hadn’t changed anything about her speciality, her vocabulary, or the types of posts she shared. When posting as Andrew “about gender equality, I noticed the general lack of men jumping on the thread to exclaim ‘men too’, and I got a LOT of kudos,” Myles writes.

Andrew’s world wasn’t all roses and virtual red carpets. Myles is a millennial, and she noticed that her voice felt out of place when Andrew, who appeared as a 55-year-old, joined conversations about innovation. She also felt “delegitimized” discussing diversity while posing as as a middle-aged white man.

Still, her experience echoes that of others who have learned through living it that men have it better in the workplace. Last year, for example, two women co-founders in the US invented a third co-founder, named Keith, to make their jobs easier.

The women, Penelope Gazin and Kate Dwyer, had launched Witchsy, an e-commerce company selling artwork and crafts by curated independent artists. They found they needed to invent a dude named Keith to deal with outside vendors and a few male artists with less friction. As Dwyer explained to Quartz: “It was very clear no one took us seriously and everybody thought we were just idiots.” When “Keith” contacted collaborators, Gazin says, “they’d be like ‘Okay, bro, yeah, let’s brainstorm!’”

The sexism online mirrors attitudes that taint gender relations in real life. It’s even present on office tools like Slack, a team-messaging app. Now, AI-enabled assistants such as Amazon’s Alexa, are being introduced to workplaces, where their female names and voices will probably only underscore biases about women’s roles and competencies.

In her Mumbrella essay, Myles suggests that LinkedIn might have more tools available to protect women from inappropriate messages, and they should put them to use.

For its part, LinkedIn told Quartz At Work that it urges members to report any inappropriate messages, which are investigated.”We have multiple tools and processes in place to flag and stop any harassment we see,” Linked said in a statement. “We are also investing in ways to improve detection of these unacceptable behaviors and for members to tell us when things aren’t right.”

Regarding the possibility that its algorithm had selected more senior potential connections for Andrew, the company’s response suggests that it’s possible, but not because of he was a man.  “Our ‘People You May Know’ matching algorithm does not include gender as a signal and does not use any explicit or inferred gender information,” a spokesperson wrote. “Our algorithms do take many other factors into account including the activity of an individual member and of other members in response, which could have contributed to what [Myles] experienced.”

Myles encouraged her readers to try switching genders online, as she did, to get a first-hand taste of how assumptions change. (“It’s almost as if [gender] is a social construct,” she writes, sarcastically.)

Just the act of ignoring digital-culture norms might be liberating, according to Myles, who recalls, “On a social media platform where people meticulously tend to their ‘personal brand’, cultivating their online presence like a precious bonsai, disrupting it and receiving applause emojis felt awesome and rebellious.”

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.