Anger as a single female selected for Scottish Parliament honour

• Scottish Parliament

Edinburgh North & Leith Labour MSP Malcolm Chisholm said it was a disgrace that only one female had been included among the famous Scots to be honoured with a room at the parliament.

MSPs were asked last year to put forward suggestions and the cross-party Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body announced its choice last week. Apart from education pioneer Mary Fairfax Somerville, the rest of the list was all male – poet Robert Burns, Nobel prize winner Sir Alexander Fleming, physicist James Clerk Maxwell, economist Adam Smith and explorer David Livingstone.

The parliament said the selection was a balance between different fields.

But Mr Chisholm said: "I think it's a disgrace having only one woman. What kind of message does that send out about the Scottish Parliament and Scotland?."

• Should more parliament rooms have been named after famous women?

He has tabled a motion in the parliament saying the selection of just one woman reflects "a one-sided and distorted view of Scotland" and calling on the corporate body to reconsider the matter "in recognition of the very many great Scottish women whose contribution, like that of Scottish women in general, is every bit as important and distinguished as that of men".

Mr Chisholm nominated two Edinburgh women – pioneering First World War doctor Elsie Inglis and Chrystal Macmillan, Edinburgh University's first female to graduate in science. Somerville (1780-1872) – who already has an Oxford College named after her – was born in Jedburgh but grew up in Burntisland and Edinburgh and went to school in Musselburgh. She made her name writing about science and mathematics.

SNP Lothians MSP Shirley-Anne Somerville – no relation – said she was pleased at least one woman had made it.

But she added: "I would like to have seen some more women. The list does not give due recognition to the importance of women in Scottish society and history.

"I'm disappointed that Elsie Inglis, in particular, has not got into the final six. She was an incredible Edinburgh woman and it would have been good to have her recognised in the Capital's parliament."

A parliament insider said Scottish missionary Mary Slessor had almost made the list, but it was felt she could not be chosen in preference to Livingstone.

Some names which received multiple nominations – including Labour Party founder Keir Hardie and patriot William Wallace – were rejected as "too political". But the insider insisted the need to recognise women's contribution had been taken into account. And he said the SPCB had gone out of its way to ensure the Somerville room would be committee room 2, one of the two large committee rooms at Holyrood. The other, committee room one, will be the Burns room.

WHO DIDN'T MAKE THE LIST?

• Mary Brooksbank (1897-1978): revolutionary and songwriter

Winnie Ewing (1929-): SNP former MP, MEP and MSP

Jane Haining (1897-1944): Church of Scotland missionary who died in Auschwitz

Elsie Inglis (1864 -1917): pioneering doctor and suffragist

Jennie Lee (1904-1988): Labour MP and wife of NHS founder Nye Bevan

Chrystal Macmillan (1872-1937): first female science graduate at Edinburgh University

St Margaret (1045-1093): wife of Malcolm III, known for her kindness to the poor and orphans

Mary Queen of Scots (1542-1587)

Flora McDonald (1722-1790): Jacobite heroine

Mary Slessor (1848-1915): missionary to Calabar in present-day Nigeria