DOI: 10.3886/icpsr35244.v1
title: Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) Recruitment Studies, 2008
title: Version 1

description: The 2008 Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) Recruitment Studies are studies of United States state legislators' and mayors' pathways to office that were conducted by the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) at the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University. Data about state legislators and mayors of big cities were gathered through survey instruments that consisted primarily of questions concerning the decision to seek office, previous political experience, and personal background. The studies, which were conducted by mail, web, and phone, were designed to replicate a 1981 CAWP study about gender and pathways to elective office. All women serving in the legislatures of the 50 states were surveyed, along with a random sample of men state legislators; men were randomly selected and sampled in proportion to the number of women serving in each chamber and state. All women mayors of cities with a population of 30,000 and above serving in 2008 were surveyed, along with a random sample of men mayors. Demographic variables include age, education, race, and marital status.
description: Data about state legislators and mayors of big cities were gathered through survey instruments that consisted primarily of questions concerning the decision to seek office, previous political experience, and personal background.
description: The studies which were conducted by mail, web, and phone, were designed to replicate a 1981 CAWP study about gender and pathways to elective office. Respondents received an initial letter informing them of the study and inviting them to complete the survey online. This letter was also sent electronically to those respondents with publicly available email addresses. Respondents who did not complete the web survey after this initial invitation were sent a paper copy of the survey instrument with a postage-paid, self-addressed return envelope. Non-respondents were subsequently re-contacted with reminder messages and additional copies of the survey instrument. Towards the end of the data collection period, remaining non-respondents received phone call reminder messages as well as invitations to complete the survey by phone. All respondents were promised confidentiality.
description: Any variables that could directly or indirectly identify state legislators or mayors have been removed. Some responses have been recoded to "no answer" or "not applicable" to preserve state legislator and mayor confidentiality. Variable names and question wording in this codebook are drawn from the questionnaire sent to women state legislators. For example, variable "wq1" is the first question of the women state legislator questionnaire, etc. The questionnaires that were sent to women and men state legislators were identical except that the questionnaire sent to women included two additional questions about women's organizations. These two questions are indicated in this codebook.
description: Response Rates: 36.5 percent of state legislators and 48.2 percent of mayors of large cities.
description: Datasets: 
 
 DS1: Dataset
description: computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI), mail questionnaire, web-based survey 
This is an elite study of United States state legislators and mayors. Respondents were promised confidentiality. Some variables have been removed and some variables recoded in order to preserve respondent confidentiality.
description: United States state legislators and mayors of large cities. Smallest Geographic Unit: Individual elected officials
description: All women serving in the legislatures of the 50 states in 2008 were surveyed, along with a random sample of men state legislators; men were randomly selected and sampled in proportion to the number of women legislators serving in each chamber and state. All women mayors of cities with a population of 30,000 and above serving in 2008 were surveyed, along with a random sample of men mayors.