As David Cameron completed his speech on Sunday to the Conservative Party's Spring Forum, his Shadow Cabinet colleagues leapt to their feet behind him to join in the ritual standing ovation. Arrayed on the stage stood 23 men in dark suits. And only four women.

There was a time when Mr Cameron could expect congratulations for filling the stage with colleagues who, whatever their gender, were at least recognisably human, and for seating in the auditorium a smattering of people who weren't living on a pension. But, looking at the photographs of Mr Cameron and his colleagues it is hard not be struck by their uniformity and, more sharply, at how male a Cameron Government would be.

When he ran for the leadership, Mr Cameron made the lack of Conservative women MPs a particular target of criticism. It is not hard to see why. There are only 17 Conservative women MPs. The result is that the Shadow Cabinet has only four female MPs in it, supplemented by three female peers. Mr Cameron has made definite progress. In 2005, 19 per cent of Conservative candidates were women, while 30 per cent of constituencies have selected women for the next election. If there is a Tory government with a majority of one, at least 50 MPs out of 326 will be women. Yet even so, these are disappointing figures. And the Labour Party does much better.

Does this matter? It most certainly does. A party that seeks to govern for all the people must have a broad and representative Parliamentary party. It is not required to replicate the country's social composition, but it does need to be able to show that it is open to all and understands the country it wants to govern.

The lack of female Tory MPs puts a question mark against the party. It is also a serious electoral liability. Since the introduction of the universal franchise, the Conservatives have never won an election unless they did better among women than among men. Nor is it anything other than an insult to answer that the party selects the best candidates in the country regardless of gender. This amounts to arguing that there are no women in the entire country who are superior to Derek Conway.

Mr Cameron may be stuck with a small female contingent in this Parliament but there are some things he can do. First, he can promote to the Shadow Cabinet those remaining women who are eligible. His team is not so strong, nor the alternatives so weak as to make this impossible.

Next he can make his own team of advisers more representative. At the moment his chief of staff, his director of communications and his head of strategy are all men. His private office might be able to compensate, to some extent, for the deficiencies of the parliamentary party. He should make it a priority to ensure that female perspectives are represented when his team gathers round the office table. He should also attend to the Board of the Conservative Party.

Finally he can start working now with the women candidates he expects to join him in Westminster. They need to be ready to join his Government at an early stage. He should start integrating them into his frontbench team now.

This morning Mr Cameron should study the pictures of his male-dominated team and his eyes should alight on the big sign behind them. It reads “Change needed now”.