ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has altered the ways in which people live and work at home. As pandemic lockdowns have confined people to their homes, the distinction between one's work life and home life has blurred. This, in turn, has affected individuals’ sense of responsibility as workers and co-dwellers. How did people perceive these changes in their daily lives? What new narratives arose to make sense of it? In this paper, we investigate how advertisements geared to national audiences represent Japanese and Norwegian households’ ways of balancing a new kind of work and home life. Specifically, we ask how advertisements envision balancing working at home during the pandemic while accomplishing necessary housework and caregiving. We focus on how the presentation of certain domestic tasks is gendered, analysing how gender shapes narratives about the balance between work and home in everyday life.
