Outgoing Liberal MP Sharman Stone has warned the number of women in Parliament is likely to fall after the July 2 election, with at least four retiring female MPs in safe seats set to be replaced by men.

Of the 62 seats identified by the Australian Electoral Commission as marginal and seats where the sitting member is retiring or has been disendorsed by their party, 26 will be contested by two men from the major parties and 14 will be contested by two women.

Outgoing Liberal MPs Sharman Stone and Bronwyn Bishop. Photo: Andrew Meares

The 44th Parliament, which was officially dissolved on Monday, included 72 female MPs - above the average for the past four parliaments of 64.25 female members - out of a total 226 elected representatives. 

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While some preselections are yet to be finalised by the major parties, Labor will stand at least 47 lower house female candidates. The Coalition will stand at least 32, compared with 43 from the Greens. There are 150 seats in the lower house.

Dr Stone, who is leaving politics after 20 years, is expected to be replaced in her safe Victorian seat of Murray by either Liberal candidate Duncan McGauchie​ or Nationals candidate Damian Drum.

A page on the Liberal Party's candidate website.

Former speaker Bronwyn Bishop is expected to be replaced by Liberal Jason Falinski, while voters in retiring Queensland MP Teresa Gambaro's​ seat of Brisbane can choose between Liberal Trevor Evans or Labor's Pat O'Neill​.

In Western Australia, voters in Alannah MacTiernan's​ seat of Perth will also choose between two male candidates, Liberal Jeremy Quinn or Labor's Tim Hammond.

Dr Stone said it was disappointing fewer women would be part of the 45th Parliament.

"If you are going on the number of women like myself who are retiring and have been replaced by preselected male candidates, and all those guys got up, the expectation is we would probably go down to lower than we are now," she said.

"Men and women do come from different perspectives and life experiences, and its been well researched that boards and management groups have better outcomes for their shareholders when there's more balanced numbers of men and women in leadership."

Last year, Labor's national conference voted to boost the number of female MPs in the party to 50 per cent by 2025. Labor first introduced targets for women MPs in the 1990s and the latest target for MPs and party officials will be reached in stages - growing to 45 per cent by 2022.

In April, Victorian Liberal opposition leader Matthew Guy set a target to boost female representation by 10 per cent at every election. The plan would see the percentage of female MPs rising to 37 per cent in 2018, and to almost half by 2022.

In NSW, Premier Mike Baird and Treasurer Gladys Berejiklian​ have both called for better female representation in Parliament. The NSW Liberal Party has made increasing female representation a priority while NSW Nationals leader Troy Grant wants his party to have 50 per cent female MPs by 2025.

Dr Stone said a 50 per cent goal for Canberra was "an excellent aspiration" but changes to how Parliament works were also required.

"The reputation now of Parliament and of parliamentarians doesn't encourage a lot of people to even bother.

"That reputation is fuelled by a lot of journalists who are lazy, who just go to Question Time and just report on the cut and thrust, and don't report on the bipartisanship that is there. If you read the media, all you ever see is people throwing bricks at Question Time and a lot of women aren't interested in that sort of thing.

"Like men, they go into Parliament because they want to make a change. The apparent fisticuffs and behaviour make a lot of women wonder why they would want to waste their time," she said.

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