The woman who will soon become the first female boss of a listed UK-based oil firm, said women are partly to blame for the lack of females on company boards.

In an interview with the Evening Standard, Sara Edmonson, who will return as chief executive of oil firm Saffron Energy after her maternity leave in June, said women “are penalising themselves” by not applying for higher roles over concerns they will have difficulties balancing between their work and personal life.

Saffron Energy went public on the London stock exchange last week.

“One of the reasons women aren’t really moving up, especially in board positions, is that they’re the ones pulling themselves out because of maternity leave or concerns about how they’ll manage their life when they return to work,” Ms Edmonson told the Standard. “I think a lot of women are penalising themselves,” she added.

In separate comments to the Independent she said that “having a baby doesn't need to change your life completely or your ambitious as an individual”.

“It is all about the ability to knowing what you want in life and plan things,” she added.

Earlier this month, research by headhunter Egon Zehnder revealed that the rate at which women are being promoted to the boards of the UK’s largest companies has slowed for the first time.

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Women made up 29 per cent of hires to UK boards last year, down from 32.1 per cent in 2014 and 31.6 per cent in 2012, according to the research.