John Howard: Caring role limits women's capacity for politics

Women will likely never have equal representation in parliament because of the "caring role" they play in society, former prime minister John Howard has said.

Speaking to the National Press Club earlier this afternoon, Howard said he was "not sure you will ever have a 50-50 thing" when he was questioned on the representation of women in politics.

"It is a fact of society that the caring role, whatever people may say about it and whatever the causes are, women play a significantly greater part of fulfilling the caring role in our communities which inevitably place some limits on their capacity," he said.

"Some people may say, 'what a terrible thing to say'. It is not a terrible thing to say, it just happens to be the truth."

Female representation in the parliamentary Liberal Party was at its highest when John Howard was prime minister.

The Labor Party set up a quota system to have more women in parliament in 1994, but the Liberal Party has no such measures.

"I don't believe in quotas, as you know, and you can talk about targets and aspirations and goals and I would like to see a natural process whereby there are more women," Mr Howard said.