GENDER DIFFERENCES IN CONSTITUENCY SERVICE AMONG STATE LEGISLATORS

Do female state legislators differ from men in constituency service? U sing a four-state survey of state legislators, we find that women rece ive more casework requests, are twice as likely to believe that they p erform more casework than their state colleagues, and are three times more likely to agree that they would perform more casework if addition al staff were available, even after controlling for a variety of other explanations. These findings support the sex role socialization liter ature that argues that interpersonal relations figure more predominant ly in the motives of female officeholders than for men.