public sphere. Hernes labeled these steps as an approach towards a "women-friendly" state and a "state feminist". Hernes noted that liberal welfare policies combined with high levels of women representation within legislative bodies were defining characteristics of each of these states. In 1995, with the help of others, McBride and Mazur founded the Research Network on Gender Politics and the State(RNGS). The RNGS looked to clarify the idea of state feminism, initially defined as "when women’s policy agencies acting as allies of women’s movement actors achieve policy goals and procedural access to policy-making arenas". With the RNGS having gender policy experts study policy debates on "hot issues" between the years of 1960 and 2000s, a structured state feminist theoretical framework came into view. Theory State feminism revolves around the government enforcing gender egalitarian values and the policy agendas which the state uses. This allows a decrease in the distrust which some feminist feel towards the government within a patriarchal society. McBride and Mazur identify two types of state feminism derived from agency-movement alliances: "Movement State Feminism" and "Transformative State Feminism." The former describes when the government reacts to the women's movement in a place by creating policies that promote "demands based on gender consciousness, women's solidarity, and the cause of women."State feminism's framework requires that these movements have two key component, "the discourse developed by women as they contemplate their own gender consciousness in relation to society; and the actors who present that discourse in public life". The transformative process is where the demands already started within the state become "explicitly feminist" and work towards full gender equality and the possibility of transforming relationships between genders. State feminism can also drive a government to become more broadly democratic in nature. State feminism should be conceptualized as a gradient. Each policy agency participates separately in the process of pushing policy, creating unique "substantive and procedural responses". Hedlund and Lindberg further organize state feminism into the "macro level, meso level and micro level." They label Hernes original theory of state feminism as being at the macro level. Much research has connected state feminism to policy agencies, leaving a narrow scope. To define the meso level they use Threlfall's description of state feminism, "result of the interplay between agitation from below and integration policy from above". The meso level is best defined the interactions between women not present in the state and the