Portrait to honour Theresa Stewart, the city's first female leader

A portrait of Theresa Stewart, the first and only woman to lead Birmingham City Council, is to be commissioned to celebrate her contribution to the life of the city.

The announcement was made on International Women's Day, 8 March.

A life in public service

Alderman Theresa Stewart served as a councillor for more than 30 years. She was leader of the council from 1993 to 1999 and Lord Mayor from 2000 to 2001. She died on 11 November 2020, aged 90.

Throughout her long career in local government, she consistently campaigned on behalf of the vulnerable, the poor and those who needed extra help in life.

A room for remarkable women

The portrait will hang in the Ellen Pinsent Room in the Council House. The room was renamed on International Women's Day 2019 after the city's first female councillor, and is dedicated to celebrating women's achievements.

It is already home to 30 portraits of the women featured in the book Once Upon a Time in Birmingham: Women Who Dared to Dream. Theresa Stewart herself opened the room, alongside Randal Keynes, the great-grandson of Dame Ellen Pinsent.

Dame Ellen Pinsent was elected to the council in 1911, becoming the first woman to sit on Birmingham City Council. She was a campaigner for people with learning disabilities and for better mental health care.

"A significant contribution"

Deputy leader Councillor Brigid Jones said: "It's true to say Theresa Stewart, as a councillor, campaigner, Leader and Lord Mayor made a significant contribution to civic life in Birmingham."

"We're working with her family on this commission to help capture and commemorate her achievements - and it's fitting we are announcing this on International Women's Day."

"The Ellen Pinsent Room is a place where the city's notable women and their achievements can be rightly recognised - and we look forward to her portrait taking its place there."

Leading the largest council

Theresa Stewart led Birmingham, the largest local authority in the country, through much of the 1990s. It was a time of great change in the city centre, in the years after the International Convention Centre and Symphony Hall opened, as Brindleyplace took shape beside the canals and the city began to change the way it was seen.

She was also only the latest in a line of women who broke new ground on the council, a line that began with Ellen Pinsent more than a century ago.

Women in civic life

More than a century after Dame Ellen Pinsent was elected, women remain under-represented in many areas of public life, and the council hopes the portraits in the room will inspire more women to take part.

The book Women Who Dared to Dream, published in 2018, celebrated the achievements of Birmingham women past and present, and the council has since supported a fund to help girls and young women in the city achieve their ambitions.

The portrait of Theresa Stewart will ensure that the city's first female leader takes her place among them, and that future generations visiting the Council House will know her name.