Ricerc@Sapienza

Although women have a growing representation in the Italian political sphere they are still often faced with sexism, borne out of feminine stereotypes, that is naturally not shared by their men col- leagues in office. We investigated these stereotypes in the context of recent research on stereotypes to- ward women leaders. Researchers in this field have made two contrasting claims: (1) that women lead- ers are forced, to their detriment, between acting like either stereotypical women or stereotypical lead- ers, and (2) that women leaders are subject to stereotypes that largely do not overlap with stereotypes of women and leaders. We analyzed numeric and textual data on the perceived effectiveness of, and sex- ism toward, Italian man and woman ministers who were presented as being either gender stereotypic or counter-stereotypic. Our results were partially consistent with both claims and suggest a future in which Italian politicians will not be rigidly bound to gender stereotypes.