Senior Tories are embroiled in a row over whether to replace shamed MP Neil Parish using an all-women shortlist.
Universities Minister Michelle Donelan branded female shortlists of candidates "demeaning" despite calls for Mr Parish to be succeeded by a female candidate from a senior Conservative woman.
The Tories are braced for a potentially tricky by-election in Tiverton and Honiton triggered by the resignation of Mr Parish, who admitted to watching pornography twice in the Commons.
The former farmer, who claimed he had initially stumbled upon X-rate material while searching for tractors, said it had been a "moment of madness".
It came after the Mirror revealed female Tory MPs had complained about seeing a colleague viewing explicit content on his phone in the chamber.
The news triggered new recriminations over sexism and misogyny in Parliament - five years on from the so-called Pestminster scandal.
Fresh claims emerged at the weekend that a senior Conservative MP pestered a female staff member for “sexual favours”.
The allegations were so serious that party bosses were advised to take them “straight to the police”, according to The Mail on Sunday.
Grim reports that emerged over the weekend include one minister accused of having “noisy sex” in his parliamentary office, and a Tory MP who allegedly sent an explicit picture to a female colleague.
Another was allegedly repeatedly warned over using prostitutes, while another MP was said to have drunkenly licked men’s faces in one of Parliament’s bars.
Conservative Caroline Nokes, who chairs the Commons Women and Equalities Committee, told the Times: “It would be real evidence of change if the Conservatives made sure they selected a local woman as the candidate for the by-election."
At the weekend, Ms Nokes branded her own party "institutionally sexist" and revealed she was subjected to hostile briefings and smears for speaking out.
Fellow Conservative Ms Donelan said the reports of unacceptable conduct were "horrific and alarming" but she had never personally been affected during her seven years in Parliament.
"This is not the majority of Members of Parliament, this is a minority. These are misogynistic dinosaurs. They do not represent the majority of Members of Parliament," she told Sky News.
But she rejected the idea of imposing all-women shortlists.
"We don't do it by putting in quotas, which I find quite demeaning to women. Women can get there on merit," she said.
"We have seen that in the past in my own party - the first two female prime ministers when Labour haven't even come close.
"We have got the Home Secretary who is a female, we have got the Foreign Secretary who is a female: those individuals got there on merit."
Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle has demanded a shake-up of working practices in Westminster, including a change to the rules so staff are no longer employed by MPs.
There have also been calls for action to clamp down on Parliament's drinking culture.
But Ms Donelan said MPs should not be able to blame the widespread availability of booze in Westminster for unacceptable behaviour.
"Are we literally saying that people can't go and have a drink and then behave themselves? Because that is a damning indictment," she told Times Radio.
"There are many workplaces where after work, people will go with their colleagues for a drink, and that doesn't then excuse them to sexually harass or sexually abuse or bully, somebody afterwards.
"That's just not acceptable, and using bars as an excuse doesn't wash for me."
Tory party chairman Oliver Dowden said he wanted the Conservatives to ensure more women MPs were elected so that the party in Parliament "reflects the wider country".
Mr Parish said he would resign on Saturday over the "furore" but tried to claim he had stumbled upon the X-rated material initially while looking for tractors.
He told BBC South West: "The situation was, funnily enough it was tractors I was looking at, so I did get into another website with sort of a very similar name and I watched it for a bit, which I shouldn't have done.
"My crime, my most biggest crime, is that on another occasion I went in a second time, and that was deliberate.
"That was sitting waiting to vote on the side of the chamber."
Allies have suggested he may have been searching for a brand of combine harvester known as a Claas Dominator.
