Abstract
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.
About the authors
Julia Marin Hellwege is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of South Dakota. She is also affiliated with the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program.
Lindsey Cormack is an Assistant Professor in the College of Arts and Letters and Director of the Diplomacy Lab at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ.
Topic Operationalization Terms
The use of the * symbol denotes a regular expression search such that any ending appended to a root word would be captured in our search. For example nurse* would capture nurse, nurses, nursed, nursing.
COVID-19 or Coronavirus
Any communication mentioning “covid” or “corona*” are considered to be those on the topic of the pandemic. At the start of the pandemic, “coronavirus” was the more commonly used word to refer to the pathogen but then COVID became the more widely used term.
Child Topic
Any communication mentioning “child*”
Family Topic
Any communication mentioning “family” or “families”
School Topic
Any communication mentioning “school*”
Parent Topic
Any communication mentioning “parent*”
Business Topic
Any communication mentioning “Business*”
Hospital Topic
Any communication mentioning “Hospital*”
Doctor Topic
Any communication mentioning “Doctor*”
Nurse Topic
Any communication mentioning “Nurse*”
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