Rappresentazioni di genere in politica. Il Ministro e la Ministra. Tra valutazione di efficacia, stereotipi di genere, prescrizioni di ruolo e sessismo linguistico. Primi risultati di un'indagine empirica.
The research has investigated the role of sexist language, gender stereotypes, and roles
prescriptions in the political sphere. It was framed in the tradition of social representations. We
have studied the impact of specific linguistic categories – relative both to masculine or feminine
declination for a Minister's political office, and to the use of references to stereotypical or counterstereotypical
behaviours - on 1) the evaluation of political effectiveness, 2) the associations to the
stimulus-words Man/Woman Minister, and 3) the ambivalent sexism towards women (ASI of
Glick and Fisk, 1996) and men (AMI, Glick and Fisk, 1999). Participants were 830 genderbalanced
Italian citizens (55.3% women) recruited in 2016 on a voluntary basis. The ANOVA
model showed that the man minister was judged to be more effective in counter-stereotypical than
in stereotypical behaviour; the woman minister was rated as more effective in stereotypical
behaviour compared to the man in the same condition The associations presented a more
stereotypical orientation, with a negative valence for the man minister than the woman minister.