Profile Gating? Addressing Congestion to Improve Women’s Wellbeing on Online Matching Platforms

The problem of worsening gender skew is particularly damaging in the context of dating and matrimonial matching platforms since it affects the wellbeing and user experience of women participants. Gender skew could result in an odd-based approach by men, resulting in search frictions, congestions, and thus disempowerment for women participating on these platforms. If platforms do not ensure the equitable participation of women, it could lead to the unraveling of the platforms. In this paper, we look at how a platform-level intervention could reduce the congestion for women and thus improve their overall user experience on the platform. We specifically look at a form of