Ms Ryan was elected to the Senate in 1975 as one of the first representatives for the ACT after it was granted two seats in the Senate.
She remained in Parliament for 12 years before retiring in 1987.
In 2011 she was appointed Australia's first age discrimination commissioner, later also serving as disability discrimination commissioner.
Former prime minister Paul Keating described her death as great loss and lauded her work as education minister in the Bob Hawke government.
"Her great achievement was to lift Year 12 retention rates in schools, which was an abysmal three in 10 when she took office in 1983, to end at nine in 10 in 1996," he said in a statement.
"This revolutionised education in Australia, most particularly for girls, who had averaged even fewer than three in 10 at year 12 in 1983."
"Susan Ryan was an indefatigable progressive across a veritable field of issues and ideas.
She never minded the heat in the kitchen. Revelled in it, in fact."
"Susan Ryan will be remembered as someone who sought to make our country bigger and more open to every citizen. She leaves a legacy that will endure."
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