Should political parties be fined if too few women are chosen?

Political parties that field a low number of female general election candidates should face fines, according to a report from the Women and Equalities Committee.

Candidate lists should be at least 45 per cent female in an attempt to redress a persistent gender imbalance in the House of Commons, it says.

Despite the recent accession of Theresa May, the country's second female prime minister, the UK languishes in international rankings for gender parity in politics. Women account for just under 30 per cent of the 650 MPs in Westminster.

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In light of this, the government "should be prepared to legislate to achieve parity among candidates, including setting out financial penalties for under-performance, if voluntary measures do not bear fruit", finds the report.

The Committee, chaired by Conservative MP Maria Miller, suggests a target of 45 per cent female representation by 2030 for general election candidates.

Campaigners for equal representation have welcomed the report, which also reiterates the importance of outreach initiatives aimed at bringing women into politics.

But the proposal has proven controversial with some politicians, both male and female.

"The whole idea is a complete nonsense," former Conservative minister Ann Widdecombe told the Daily Mail. "The only way you could hit a quota of that sort is to have all-women shortlists, which mean a man cannot be selected even if he is the best candidate."

Conservative party chairman Patrick McLoughlin told the Committee that imposing all-women shortlists on Conservative associations would "risk resentment", which "would not help that Member of Parliament or that candidate once they were selected".

After Labour first introduced all-female shortlists in the 1997 general election, the number of female Labour MPs skyrocketed from 37 to 101.

Excluding the Green party's sole MP, Caroline Lucas, Labour still has the highest party percentage of female MPs, with 99 women accounting for 43 per cent of the party's 232 MPs. In comparison, only 68 of the Conservatives' 330 MPs are women, just 21 per cent.

Nonetheless, the report says, there is still work to be done in every party before gender equality is achieved.

"All of the main parties fielded significantly less than 50 per cent women parliamentary candidates for the 2015 General Election," the Committee notes, "despite confidence in their own internal mechanisms" to tackle the imbalance.