Writing "Home" in a Pandemic: The Prevalence of Gendered Topics in Congressional COVID-19 Communications

The COVID-19 pandemic had a disparate impact across populations leaving questions about gendered representation in Congress. We ask whether women and men in Congress wrote "home"about COVID-19 at the same rates and if their attention on gendered topics such as childcare, schooling, and care-taking differed even when the issue space was significantly narrowed. We argue members of Congress use gendered and partisan lenses to frame their positions around the pandemic. We find both parties send a similar number of COVID-19 related messages and that women compared to men-within each party-focus on areas traditionally associated with women's care-taking duties.