Policy Change Takes Flight

How does policy change occur within an institution? This article presents a framework to examine agents of policy change as key mechanisms for understanding institutional transformation. A case study evaluation of the Department of the Air Force Women's Initiatives Team—an all-volunteer effort that has generated policy changes addressing military uniform standards, aircraft design, reproductive healthcare access, and parental leave—explores how gender policy change in the Department of the Air Force has unfolded over the past decade. By utilizing ethnographic and policy research, this article traces the individual and group dynamics shaping the team's activities as well as the collective action challenges facing such changes within the department, with implications for institutions in general.