Editing Birmingham City Council (section)

=== Women and minorities ===
The first woman elected to the council, on 1 November 1911, was [[Ellen Pinsent]].<ref name="Roberts">{{cite web|url=https://theironroom.wordpress.com/2015/03/04/my-whole-time-is-given-to-the-service-of-my-fellow-citizens-the-first-women-elected-to-birmingham-city-council/|title='My whole time is given to the service of my fellow citizens' – the first women elected to Birmingham City Council|last=Roberts|first=Sian|date=4 March 2015|publisher=[[Library of Birmingham]]|access-date=10 March 2015}}</ref> She represented the Edgbaston Ward as a [[Liberal Unionist]].<ref name="Roberts" /> She had earlier been co-opted as a member of the council's Education Committee and served as Chairman of the Special School Sub-Committee.<ref name="Roberts" /> She stood down from the council in October 1913 upon appointment as Commissioner for the [[Board of Control for Lunacy and Mental Deficiency]].<ref name="Roberts" />

Pinsent's time on the council overlapped with that of Margaret Frances Pugh, who was elected on 22 November 1911 to serve in the North Erdington ward.<ref name="Roberts" /> She resigned in November 1913.<ref name="Roberts" />

Birmingham's third woman councillor, [[Clara Martineau]], was elected on 14 October 1913 in the Edgbaston ward, and served until 1932, when she died, aged 57.<ref name="Roberts" /> Her father was former Mayor Sir [[Thomas Martineau]], Lord Mayor Ernest Martineau was her brother, and Alderman [[George Hamilton Kenrick|Sir George Kenrick]] was her uncle.<ref name="Roberts" />

Mary Cottrell became the first female [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] councillor in February 1917, when she was elected unopposed to the Selly Oak ward. The first female Lord Mayor, Marjorie Brown, held the post from 1973 to 1974. [[Theresa Stewart]] became the first female leader in October 1993,<ref name="WLGS">{{cite web|url=http://www.womeninlocalgovernment.org.uk/db/index.php |title=Women's Local Government Society |publisher=[[Women's Local Government Society]] |access-date=24 April 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120209142043/http://www.womeninlocalgovernment.org.uk/db/index.php |archive-date=9 February 2012 }}</ref> until 1999; and [[Lin Homer]] the first female chief executive, was in post from 2002 until 2005.

[[Bert Carless]], a migrant from Jamaica, was elected the City's first non-white councillor in 1979. He was later made an [[Honorary Alderman]].<ref name="LGC">{{cite web |title=Death of Birmingham's First Black Councillor |url=https://www.lgcplus.com/archive/death-of-birminghams-first-black-councillor-20-08-2003/ |website=[[Local Government Chronicle]] |access-date=16 December 2023 |date=20 August 2003}}</ref><ref name="JollyClarke">{{cite news |last1=Jolly |first1=Bradley |last2=Clarke |first2=Nathan |title=Brum's first Black councillor to be honoured - but activist says 'it's too late' |url=https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/birminghams-first-black-councillor-finally-28281945 |access-date=16 December 2023 |work=[[Birmingham Live]] |date=13 December 2023 }}</ref>