Stage 2: Active Learning

Visitors who click on additional content engage with one of 50 instructional videos, organized into five categories:

• Designing my living environment
• Taking care of my health and home safety
• Resource management
• Problem-solving and adaptability
• Proficiency in relationships and responsibilities

This stage measured voluntary interest. Men must exit their social feed, navigate to a new platform, and invest time in watching how-to videos.   20,000 men chose to actively learn, demonstrating a 4% conversion from website visits to active engagement, without any external incentives or social pressure.

Stage 3: Sustained Engagement

The final stage tracked men’s long-term commitment, measured by YouTube subscriptions.

Result: 458 subscriptions - approximately 2% of active learners

Significance: Men voluntarily established an ongoing relationship with skill-building content, indicating potential for sustained behavior change when learning is private and self-directed.  

WHY THIS ARCHITECTURE MATTERS

Traditional campaigns relying on obligation, fairness, or shame have consistently failed to achieve lasting change. The SIA intervention shows that behavior changes when new skills are personally valuable, achievable, and clearly structured.

Key findings:

• Framing domestic skills as self-development motivates men more effectively than gender equity appeals.
• Men respond positively to tasks traditionally coded as “female” when framed as valuable and empowering.
• Voluntary engagement is higher when learning is private and non-performative.
• This isn't about absolving men of responsibility. It's about accepting that responsibility alone doesn't drive behavior change at scale.  The intervention tests which approach is likely to change behavior.  
• Can we “Call men in, instead of calling men out?” as Gary Barker of Equimundo’s Center for Masculinities and Social Justice questions.  

WHAT WE NEED TO TEST NEXT

While thousands of men voluntarily engaged with the Self Independence Academy, sustaining this behavior over time requires further testing. Future steps include:

• Developing structured learning pathways with milestones.
• Enhancing peer modeling to provide social proof.
• Exploring identity-based framing that emphasizes competent adulthood over mere skill utility.

By focusing on what motivates men to choose to build these skills, organizations can create conditions for genuine behavior change and ultimately contribute to more equitable domestic labor distribution. Organizations across contexts should test these mechanisms, building an evidence base for what actually leads to behaviour change, and ultimately (hopefully) more time in women’s (participation) pockets.  

CONCLUSION

The Self Independence Academy demonstrates a shift from blame and obligation to opportunity and self-development. Men engage with domestic skills not because they are told to, but because they see value for themselves. This approach offers a promising pathway for behavior change that is voluntary, sustainable, and transformative, moving beyond traditional campaigns to create real impact.