Female Liberal MP to face preselection challenge from male barrister

NSW Liberal MP Eleni Petinos will face a preselection challenge in Miranda from a male barrister, with another three female MPs also likely to be challenged by men.

Ms Petinos' challenge from barrister Jeffrey Clarke comes as the Liberal Party deals with the fallout of bullying in federal parliament and as it struggles to recruit enough women to fight the next federal election.

Liberal member for Miranda Eleni Petinos.

Poor polling, as well as looming retirements, could reduce the number of female Liberals in the House of Representatives to the lowest level since the early 1990s.

Women are also poorly represented in the NSW government, making up just 22 per cent of Liberal MPs.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian has told her party that she wanted all her sitting MPs returned but despite this several have faced challenges, including health minister Brad Hazzard.

There are 11 female Liberal MPs in Ms Berejiklian's government and several are likely to be challenged, including North Shore MP Felicity Wilson and upper house MPs Catherine Cusack and Natasha Maclaren-Jones.

Ms Petinos won Miranda in 2015 and was the only Liberal to take a seat from Labor at that election.

Ms Wilson, who is pregnant, is under threat after she falsely claimed, in a party nomination form for the seat of North Shore, to have lived in her electorate for a decade since 2005.

But electoral roll records and rental histories showed Ms Wilson lived in North Epping in 2005.

The party's right candidate Tim James, a former chief of staff to planning minister Anthony Roberts, is expected to challenge Ms Wilson.

Ms Wilson beat Mr James in a preselection when former health minister Jillian Skinner retired.

A Liberal MP said: "The preselections are a democratic process but it is just extraordinary that females are being challenged in this environment, especially by men who are the embodiment of what the party already has in abundance."