Christine Stewart: He began with a joke about his aunt's lottery win

Tories need to be "more accessible, more relevant and more welcoming" to ambitious women, he told the party's Women's Conference in Solihull, West Midlands.

He said: "I want more women MPs in the Conservative Party.

"We have some new outstanding women MPs, but there aren't very many of them.

"I want to see more women MPs and I want to bring that about not through quotas and all-women short-lists, but through people succeeding on merit.

"We have to show that the way in which we conduct our affairs, the way in which we choose candidates in the constituencies, is not biased against women."

Up to 400 women members of the Conservative Party heard Mr Hague address their annual conference which is expected to be one more step in the modernisation of the Tory party's image.

Tweed and pearls

The meeting was also addressed by Ann Widdecombe, Peter Lilley and Kamlesh Bahl, head of the Equal Opportunities Commission.

It has been suggested the tweed and pearls stereotype of the typical Tory woman is no longer the ideal image for a modernising party.

Hence the decision to allow prospective male MPs not to have to bring along their wives to be grilled.

The traditional image of a supportive but silent wife who will stand by her man is to be replaced by the idea of a spouse who is more akin to Mr Hague's wife Ffion.

Remoulding the image

Not only did Mrs Hague defy Baroness Thatcher by sharing a room with her fiance at her first party conference, she is also remoulding the image of a Tory wife.

Her influence has resulted in her husband threatening to resign from the men-only Conservative Carlton Club.

Mr Hague once said: "There is no point in me going round the country saying we should have more women candidates and bring more women into the Conservative party and then saying "sorry women can't join the Carlton Club".

Many women at the conference acknowledged that there had been discriminated within the party in the past, often by members of their own sex.

Jill Dunsmore, a Conservative councillor on Lichfield District Council in Staffordshire, said: "Women have been pre-judged on their sex in the past, but those days are over.

"I don't think people are so obsessed any more with the thought that a woman must be at home with her children."