The trailblazing past of a Stourbridge community champion has been revealed.

Tributes about the work Margaret Scott did as a leading figure in the Stourbridge community have flooding in ever since her death in January at the age of 81.

But now details have emerged of the remarkable life she led shattering the glass ceiling for women in the steel industry.

Indeed Margaret, former Chair of Stourbridge Township Council, was dubbed by the Press the ‘Woman of Steel’ as she fought through prejudice and sex discrimination.

Born and raised in Scotland, she moved to Leeds to begin a career as the first ever saleswoman for British Steel Tubes.

A woman in a male dominated industry. Where she would get looks of amazement as she walked into the great male bastions of the steel mills across the country.

Where men would not know how to take her presence, or know how to handle it.

Like the time she was invited out with a group of men – to a strip club.

Or when she was refused a drink when they had taken her to an all-male bar.

Margaret always said she was no women’s libber, but as her knowledge of steel became an expertise, she became something of a troubleshooter, visiting steel plants across Europe and in the Middle East, and passing on her experience to struggling plants in Britain.

She became an ambassador for women in business and president of the Leeds Club of the UK Federation of Business Professional Women.

She was forthright in promoting equality in the workplace and was recognised for her professionalism and work in being presented with a BESMA award in 2002 from the Institute of Sales Marketing and Management.

Margaret continued to work in the Steel industry and moved to Stourbridge in the 1980s where she settled and finally retired to live in Parkfield Road.

As well as her involvement in the Township Council, she became president of the Stourbridge Speakers Society and was an active member of the writer’s club. She was also a keen gardener.

She loved animals, and used to love watching the birds in the garden in the company of Shan, her black scotty dog – who himself made the headlines after leaping over the garden wall and becoming stuck halfway down the cliff, requiring rescue from the fire brigade.

Stourbridge friends described her as ‘a lovely lady’, but now we know she was also a ‘steely’ lady.