Young Australian women are being turned off pursuing a career in politics because they think they will be treated unfairly and could face barriers if they start a family.
The findings are based on a survey of 530 young women and men by Plan International Australia to gauge their interest in a political career, the potential barriers they could face, and their views on how women are treated in parliament.
More than 40 per cent of women believed starting a family would be a barrier to a political career, while more than half thought female politicians were unfairly treated by the media and their male counterparts, Plan's She Can Lead survey found.
Just one of the 267 young women surveyed indicated she was interested in a career in politics, compared with eight of the young men.
Nearly half of the women said there weren't enough opportunities for them in politics, with one in three believing their gender was an obstacle to them becoming a politician.
Among the men, a quarter believed women should focus on starting a family before entering politics, compared to just 13 per cent of women.
A fifth of men also felt men made better pollies than women, with only eight per cent of women agreeing.
Nearly two thirds of women want political parties to increase female representation among their ranks, while less than half of men backed such a move.
Plan International Australia's deputy chief Susanne Legena said Australia was going backwards on many fronts when it comes to encouraging women to embark on political careers.
"At the moment there is a narrow view of who can and should be in politics," she said on Wednesday.
"It's limiting and people self-select out and our parliament is poorer for it.
"When you consider how women in politics are often the target of snide remarks, called 'catty' or 'witches' and even hissed at simply for stating their opinions - and all of this discriminatory behaviour in the public forum of the parliament - it's no wonder young women are put off by a life of politics."
The release of survey coincided with a group of 17 of Plan's youth activists prepared to "take over" federal parliament, where less than a third of seats are held by women, and work alongside MPs and senators for the day.
Ms Legena said Plan hoped all political parties would review their candidate selection procedures, as well as encourage women to stand for election and increase the number of women selected in winnable seats in the hope of having Australia's first gender-equal federal election in 2019.
Education Minister Simon Birmingham pulled out of the event last week after Plan matched him with a 32-year-old Muslim activist and management consultant.
Plan apologised to Mr Birmingham, who had originally asked to be paired with an adolescent girl advocate to work with him in Canberra, and said it had made a mistake.
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