Boris Johnson is being urged to rebalance female representation in the Lords by elevating more women in a peerages list expected within a week. Concerns have been raised after the names of just two women were leaked to the media out of an expected list of 30 peers. Sam Smethers, the Fawcett Society’s chief executive, said the prime minister had an opportunity to show he takes the issue of the gender imbalance within the upper chamber seriously. “Women’s representation in the House of Lords is even worse than the Commons. Instead of driving women’s representation down the government should be taking every opportunity to improve the gender balance. Allocating the majority of new peerages to women would be a good start,” she said. Ruth Davidson, the former leader of the Scottish Conservatives, and Gisela Stuart, a former Labour MP who campaigned for Leave in the Brexit referendum, are expected to be elevated to the Lords. Men who are expected to be approved by the House of Lords’ appointments commission include the former England cricketer Ian Botham, the former Tory chancellors Ken Clarke and Philip Hammond and the former Labour MPs Frank Field, John Woodcock and Ian Austin. Charles Moore, the journalist and biographer of Margaret Thatcher, and Daniel Hannan, the former Leave-supporting MEP, are also expected to be ennobled, as well as Sir Eddie Lister, chief strategic adviser to No 10. There are currently 773 peers, 212 of whom are women. Just over a quarter of Conservative peers are female, compared with 39% of Labour peers and 36% of Liberal Democrats. The prime minister has faced accusations that he has failed to bring women into the cabinet, with only six female ministers serving as full cabinet members. John Bercow, the former Speaker, Tom Watson, the former deputy leader of the Labour Party, and Karie Murphy, the former chief of staff to Jeremy Corbyn, were put forward for peerages by Jeremy Corbyn, but their names have been reportedly rejected. Three Tory donors – the City financiers Peter Cruddas and Michael Spencer and the head of the Midlands Industrial Council, Johnny Leavesley – were on the list of candidates submitted to the appointments commission, sources confirmed to the Guardian. But reports have claimed they may not be included on the final list of peers because of objections by members of the commission. There is no implication of any wrongdoing by the donors. In an email to peers at the weekend, Lord Fowler, the Lord Speaker, said that the prime minister was breaking a cross-party consensus on reducing the size of the chamber. The Burns report called for a reduction to no more than 600 peers following an escalation in costs. One Conservative peer insisted that the number of peers should continue to rise. Lord Maude, the former cabinet minister, told the Guardian: “We must refresh the House of Lords and many of those who attend are part time and bring in their expertise. I have no problem with the extra numbers being brought in.”