The Liberal Party won the election but that does not mean it can close the book on the debate about attitudes to women which almost tore the party apart last year.

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Women Liberals have long complained that the party had not fulfilled decades of promises to move towards an equal gender balance in the parliamentary party.

But the resentment about the party’s lopsided gender split bubbled to the surface in the wake of the coup that unseated Malcolm Turnbull last August.

Some prominent female Liberal MPs claimed they had been bullied by men during the frantic arm-twisting and several, including deputy leader Julie Bishop and Julia Banks, quit at the last election complaining about a boys' club mentality.