Mr Maude said women could be more 'sympathetic and empathetic'

The party had to "represent the whole of the country" after support among women fell at the last election, he told Welsh Tories' annual conference.

Labour has criticised the Welsh Conservatives for not choosing women to fight key target seats in next year's assembly election.

Party leader David Cameron aims to increase the number of women Tory MPs.

Mr Maude said: "We don't attract as many [women] as we should because they feel - and they haven't always been wrong about this - that when it comes to being selected they don't get a fair crack of the whip.

"We do need to say to them, 'You have got as good a chance as anyone,' and if we start to do that then we will be able to say to the country, 'We are a party that wants to and is able to represent the whole of the country.' This really matters."

He told the conference in Llandudno, north Wales, that increasing the number of women candidates was a matter of "political effectiveness" not "political correctness".

The party needed people who were "sympathetic and empathetic" on the doorstep.

"And I will let you into a secret. Women are very often better at it than men," he said.

Mr Cameron last year announced plans to draw up a list of the party's best candidates, half of whom would be women and there would also be a "significant proportion" of ethnic minority and disabled candidates.