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.