Susan Ryan, who blazed a trail for women in politics, will be honoured with a piece of public art commissioned by the ACT government.
Ms Ryan was the first female Labor minister and the first female minister for women during her career as part of the Hawke government in the 1980s.
After her death at age 77 in 2020, tributes flowed for the former senator who once campaigned with the slogan "a woman's place is in the Senate".
Now she will be honoured with a statue, commissioned this week, to be created by a female or non-binary artist.
Canberra's public art 'overwhelmingly male'
ACT Arts Minister Tara Cheyne called out a lack of diversity in Canberra's public art while announcing the commission.
"The ACT public art collection is overwhelmingly male, both in subject and in artist," Ms Cheyne said.
"Just 20 per cent of the works in the ACT's public art collection are by women.
"And of the figures that are represented, the people that are represented, there's 17 men and just eight women.
"We've been clear for some time now that we've been wanting to address this imbalance."
Ms Ryan was instrumental in overseeing a number of key laws enshrining opportunity and rights for women during her career.
Among those achievements was the creation of the Sex Discrimination Act, which she called "probably the most useful thing I've done in my life".
She also helped to lift year 12 retention rates in schools and, according to former prime minister Paul Keating, "revolutionised education … particularly for girls".
After her retirement from politics, she was appointed Australia's first age discrimination commissioner in 2011.
On her death, Australian female politicians remembered her as someone who made the choice of career seem possible to them.
"Susan was an inspiration and, more than that, because of all the things that she did, we can — women can," Ms Cheyne said.
"It is just absolutely fitting that as we work to address an imbalance that the person that we start that process off with is Susan Ryan.
"It is just the beginning and I look forward to more artwork and also hearing from the public about other people and other women and other non-binary people who should be commemorated in this way."
Hope statue will prompt 'conversation'
Ms Ryan's daughter, Justine Butler, said her mother had refused to see obstacles on her path through life, and hoped others would be inspired to do the same.
"She was a woman who went into politics very young, a single mother with two children … and she was very engaged in women's rights," Ms Butler said.
"Our mother made a really significant contribution to public life in the ACT."
Ms Butler said Ms Ryan had also been a supporter of the arts and its role in the cultural life of a city.
"She thought that art should be for everybody, cultural life should be for everybody — it wasn't just a middle-class pursuit," she said.
"In my mind, there's a real link to having what will hopefully be a beautiful piece of art commemorating her available to everybody, they can just walk past and think, 'oh that was Susan Ryan, what did she do?'
"And hopefully, it'll prompt — particularly for younger people who might never have heard of her — a thought process and a conversation."
