Elizabeth Broderick says Tony Abbott's one woman Cabinet is "disappointing"

SEX discrimination commissioner Elizabeth Broderick has described Tony Abbott's decision to have only one woman in his Cabinet as 'disappointing'.

Sex discrimination commissioner Elizabeth Broderick believes the new one-woman Federal Cabinet is "disappointing".

SEX discrimination commissioner Elizabeth Broderick has taken a swipe at the Coalition's one-woman Cabinet, describing it as "disappointing".

Since the new government unveiled its Cabinet on Monday, Ms Broderick has been silent on the issue, despite being one of the country's leading advocates for gender equality in the workplace.

However, she has now joined Australian of the Year Ita Buttrose and Federal Liberal MP Wyatt Roy in highlighting that there were simply not enough women in Tony Abbott's top team.

"In 2013 when women make up more than half the population, it's disappointing that there's

only one woman in Cabinet," Ms Broderick said.

"The absence of women at decision making level is a problem in every sector in Australia, politics included.

"I think it emphasises that we still have a long way to go in addressing women's under-representation at leadership level in Australia."

Ms Broderick is currently working with the Australian Defence Force to stamp out sexism through her contribution to the Review into the Treatment of Women in the forces.

Federal opposition leadership candidate Bill Shorten said Ms Broderick was speaking about a wider problem within Australian leadership.

"When leaders say the best 20 Cabinet ministers the Liberals can find in Australia only has one woman, it sends a very poor message and is out of step with the community at large," he said.

"You can't go back to an episode of Mad Men to design the line-up of your Cabinet.

"Liz Broderick is fearless and not interested in cutting the cloth of her views to suit the political fashion of the day - and is completely independent of Liberal and Labor."

Mr Shorten also hit back at Tony Abbott's comments Wednesday expressing his disappointment at only having one woman in the Cabinet, saying "he should buy a mirror if he wants to look at the cause of the disappointment."

Mr Abbott said Monday there was "very good and talented women knocking on the door" of Cabinet and that he was "obviously disappointed that there aren't more women" in the highest level of government.

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