Sexist LinkedIn: Hillary Clinton and Gender Politics
The New York Times says consumers will soon be wielding “torches and pitchforks” against cellphone carriers. Is a “rebellion” also in store for Linkedin?
At LinkedIn, Ms. Hillary Clinton is “the man,” despite being “First Lady” and seeking to be the first FEMALE president of the United States. As sexism is defined as “behavior, conditions, or attitudes that foster stereotypes of social roles based on sex” (Merriam-Webster), LinkedIn’s professional “profiles” are sexist, big time.
LinkedIn prides itself on its advertiser-friendly “premium audience,” claiming executives from each and every Fortune 500 as members. Founder Reid Hoffman proudly “signs” his LinkedIn communications by underscoring the “fact” that “3,414 CEOs use LinkedIn every day.”
How does LinkedIn’s president of products, and team, visually represent each and every one of the 15 million professionals it cites as members, both men and women? WITH A GLASS-CEILING STEREOTYPE REINFORCING MINI-MAN.
For example, the professional experience of Hillary Clinton, the most powerful woman in the world, is depicted on her LinkedIn Profile by a suit-and-tie sporting male icon. Ditto for one of LinkedIn’s own powerful women, Kay Luo, head of communications, AND every other one of the female members of LinkedIn.
Last month I discussed Facebook vs. LinkedIn: Who has the Women? noting that, while updating my LinkedIn profile over the weekend, I was taken aback to see that after posting information on my “experience,” a little executive LinkedIn MAN icon now is part of my profile, NOT a little executive LinkedIn WOMAN! (same as LinkedIn’s Ms. Luo’s profile below)
I spent some time on LinkedIn this past weekend as well and, while reading the profile of a prominent female CEO, was struck once more by the absurdity of LinkedIn using exectuive men to depict all of the executive women using its site.
I wrote in October:
It may be a “little” thing, but it is representative of that old boys club notion of the inner executive MALE circle. Why does LinkedIn “decorate” all of the 14 million plus professional profiles it hosts with executive mascots representing professional men, regardless of the gender of the person the profile represents? It would be simple to use a unisex icon, rather than a definitatively male one.
Or, how about applying a male or female executive icon as gender appropriate to individual profiles. Hey, LinkedIn could really take a stand against the purported executive “glass ceiling” by making its mascot icons universally FEMALE!
Linkedin subsequently informed me they “noticed my blog mention about the executive male mascots on LinkedIn and are trying to work with design teams to change that to unisex, if feasible.”
Six weeks later, men still rule the executive LinkedIn profile ranks, even while LinkedIn touts it has recruited “Google’s Lloyd Taylor as VP of Technical Opertations to scale infrastructure and systems and Yahoo’s Anil Khatri as VP of Engineering” to accelerate innovation.
Clinton (Hillary) has vowed to “shatter the highest glass ceiling” by becoming the first female president of the United States. Her gender-based political pitch rings somewhat hollow, though, as she is pitching her candidacy at Linkedin under the guise of a male executive.
Clinton says it is “time the world adjusted” to powerful women leaders. It is also time LinkedIn adjusted its mascots to its women members.
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