Sex discrimination commissioner Elizabeth Broderick says the lack of women in Parliament has a direct impact on major issues affecting women.

Speaking on International Women's Day, Ms Broderick says she supports any measure that would boost the number of women in Parliament.

"We absolutely need power to be shared in the Parliament between men and women," she told ABC local radio.

"There is an assumption well-educated Australian women will just trickle into positions of power. We know it's not true.

"What we do still need is some active intervention."

Her comments come after Liberal Party backbencher Sharman Stone said the party should introduce mandatory quotas to boost the number of women in Parliament.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has been criticised for only having one woman in his Cabinet, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop.

The Labor Party has long had a quota system in place but is yet to achieve its target of women in 40 per cent of seats.

Dr Stone has suggested the Liberals look to Labor for ideas about how to get women into politics.

"We've got to be, I think, much more structured about making sure women come through," Dr Stone said.

"I don't care about that 'tokenism' label; bring it on if you must."

Women should have greater role in Parliament: Broderick

According to Ms Broderick, women make up just one third of Australian parliamentarians.

"I think it's important that women's voices are heard at the highest level," she said.

She says the lack of women in Parliament has a direct impact on issues such as domestic violence, working conditions for women, their leadership roles and pay equality.

Ms Broderick is calling on men to use their power to help achieve gender equality in Australia.

She says that while progress was achieved last year in a number of areas, more men need to advocate for women's rights.

"Power in a country like Australia, in fact any country in the world, largely sits in the hands of men," she said.

"And if we want to create change, we need good, decent men taking the message of gender equality to other men.

"That's what's going to create change in countries."

Men stepping up support but more advocacy needed

The sex discrimination commissioner says men have stepped up their support in recent times but more advocacy is needed.

"I think the real shift we saw in the last year was we had more men getting on board, stepping up and being prepared to do some strong advocacy around gender equality and that's got to be a real positive," she said.

Currently, 93 per cent of chief executive officer positions in Australian corporations are held by men.

Ms Broderick says International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde, who visited Australia last week, is an impressive woman in a senior leadership role.

"Because we don't see women at senior leadership levels and in public life a lot, then we can minimise their contribution," she said.

"If we don't intentionally include women, what we do is we unintentionally exclude them - that's a really important message."