There has been and continues to be a substantial amount of work done to encourage, support, and retain women in mathematics. However, very little has been written about the faculty leading these gender-based initiatives, most of whom are women. This dynamic--women advocating on behalf of other women--is connected to identity-based activist movements. In the following, I describe how I have started to see gender-based work in STEM as a form of institutional activism. I then describe how this change of conceptualization led me to rethink the landscape of gender-based work in STEM. I reflect on literature from institutional activism and describe how that literature has changed my own engagement in gender-based service. My goal in this article is to provide math practitioners with some ideas for reflecting on their own actions in contesting historical forms of sexism. As we begin to understand the rules, norms, and cultures that constrain us, we will be better equipped to strategically contest them and create the sorts of institutional change that we want to see. I conclude the article with a series of questions to challenge all of us to think strategically about the future of our work supporting women in STEM.