#LinkedIn proudly boasts that it has more than 1 billion members around the world, of whom over 250 million are in the United States.  Supposedly to combat fraud, LinkedIn instituted a process to "Verify" member accounts through a third-party entity named CLEAR. This is a worthy and understandable goal, but LinkedIn’s methods are demeaning to women who – like me – happen to be married. This seems to me to be sex discrimination.

The “verification” process requires uploading one’s personal identification -  such as a driver’s license, plus proof that one is an authorized user for one’s cell phone number - to CLEAR through one’s mobile device. Having tried repeatedly to do so, I’ve repeatedly gone down black holes, receiving contradictory, condescending and brainless responses from representatives of both CLEAR and LinkedIn – with no acknowledgement or remuneration of the immense amounts of time that I have had to expend on this process. 

So, after hours- and multiple attempts at communication – I’ve been informed that the “support team is unable to provide further assistance at this time.” I had VERY specific reasons for wanting to use ONLY my "maiden" name on LinkedIn. 

I don't think I should have to belabor the point that there have been many women throughout the 20th century - such as Georgia O'Keeffe, Marissa Mayer and Kamala Harris - who wanted to be known by their birth names.  If you think that it shouldn’t be up to LinkedIn to decide how women want to present themselves professionally, please sign this petition – and let two of the company’s leaders – dshapero@linkedin.com and blawit@linkedin.com know.