Ryan was elected as the ACT's first Labor senator in December 1975, having campaigned with the slogan "a woman's place is in the Senate". She had been a foundation member of the Women's Electoral Lobby in 1972.

Ryan was named minister for education and youth affairs in 1983 in Bob Hawke's first ministry. She pushed to ensure the Sex Discrimination Act passed in 1984, which made it unlawful to discriminate against a person because of their sex and called it "probably the most useful thing I've done in my life".

Ryan, who left the Senate in 1988, was also the first age discrimination commissioner, serving between 2011 and 2016.

When Ryan died in September 2020, aged 77, she was remembered then by current ACT Labor senator Katy Gallagher as "the woman who led the way".

Justine Butler, Ryan's daughter, said her mother would have been honoured and absolutely loved being selected as a subject for public commemoration.

"Apart from anything else, she had earlier in her political career a great interest and commitment to the arts and cultural life. She was at one stage a shadow minister for the arts, and I can remember being dragged around all sorts of events accordingly. She really believed in the importance of public art and cultural life," Ms Butler said.

Ms Butler said it was important public memorials reflected a diverse community and showed everyone they could have a place in public life.

"What we hope is that particularly slightly younger people, very young people, walk past and go, 'Who's that? Why is this statue of her there? What did she do?' And maybe hop on Google and have a look," she said.

"That happened a lot around the time that Mum died. There were young people going, 'Oh my goodness.' Younger people contacted me and said, 'I didn't realise all she'd done; I didn't realise so much had happened and there's still more to do.' I think that's what we hope for."

The ACT government will invite expressions of interest from women and non-binary artists to create the statue for a location yet to be decided.

Arts Minister Tara Cheyne said Ryan would be remembered as a woman who led the way while also laying paths for many more to follow.

"Growing Canberra's impressive public art to capture the diversity of identity and experience has been identified as a priority when expanding our collection," Ms Cheyne said.

"The same diversity should also be reflected in the artists and creatives commissioned to make our art. In particular, women and Traditional Custodians should hold pride of place in future works, both as subjects and creators."

The government earmarked $200,000 for a public artwork commission to celebrate a significant woman in the 2021-22 ACT budget, after a long hiatus in commissioning public art.

The Legislative Assembly's standing committee on economy, gender and economic equality recently concluded an inquiry into who has been and who should be commemorated with public memorials in the ACT.

The inquiry had been prompted by a petition to the Assembly calling for the government to find ways to increase the number of women who were memorialised with public statues.

The inquiry made 12 recommendations, including establishing memorials at local shops and calling on the government to update the Assembly on future artwork commissions commemorating women, LGBTIQ+ people and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

The previous federal government announced a year ago sculptures recognising the first two women elected to federal parliament, Enid Lyons and Dorothy Tangney, and the first Indigenous Australian in parliament, Neville Bonner, had been ordered for the parliamentary triangle.

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