Statue of Suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst unveiled 100 years to the day since women first voted in the UK

The memorial, designed by sculptor Hazel Reeves, marks the climax to a year of highlighting the centenary of women winning the right to vote.

Hundreds of modern-day suffragettes gathered to see Pankhurst honoured by her home city.

Her great-grandaughter Helen Pankhurst said the campaigner "defied social norms, defied the establishment and said we can do so much more".

She said: "She was important to Manchester – her birthplace, the place where she formed the suffragette movement.

"She is being welcomed back. Let's celebrate this moment, this wonderful moment, it means so much."

On Friday people marched through Manchester to converge on St Peter's Square to see the statue unveiled.

Hundreds of schoolchildren waved homemade banners as they marched to Eurythymics song 'Sisters Are Doin' it for Themselves'.

While in nearby Oldham, actress Maxine Peake attended an unveiling of a separate statue to another leading suffragette – Annie Kenney.

The Pankhurst statue was designed to signify her speaking style, stood on a chair as though to address a crowd.

It points towards the former Free Trade Hall – where the first suffragette meetings took place.

The project was led by Manchester City Council's Coun Andrew Simcock, Chair of the Emmeline Pankhurst Statue Campaign.

Coun Simcock said: "Helen Pankhurst's vision and all those involved in this project have inspired what will take place on the day.

"This is a coming together of people to celebrate Emmeline and her legacy and the essence of Manchester – a place of progression, inclusiveness and ideas."

Born in 1858, Pankhurst founded the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) in 1903, dedicated to "deeds, not words".

The WSPU became known for physical confrontations, smashing windows and assaulting police officers.

Pankhurst and her daughters received repeated prison sentences, staging hunger strikes and were often force-fed.

When the First World War broke out, Pankhurst halted all suffrage activism to support of the British government's stand against the "German Peril".

But afterwards the 1918 the Representation of the People Act granted votes to all men over the age of 21 and women over the age of 30.

The UK first election any woman could vote in was the 1918 general election with polling taking place on 14 December 1918.

In 1999 Time magazine named her as one of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century, stating "she shaped an idea of women for our time".

She was criticised for her militancy with some historians questioning its effectiveness, but her work has been hailed as helping achieve women's suffrage.

The unveiling of Pankhurst's statue will be the first of a woman in Manchester since Queen Victoria was unveiled in Piccadilly Gardens in 1901.

Pankhurst was selected as the public's chosen female icon to be immortalised as a statue from a long list of 20 inspiring Mancunian females.

Gail Heath, Chief Executive of the Pankhurst Trust, said: "It's wonderful to end the year with such a celebratory and poignant moment.

"This has been a year that has inspired all of us working to carry forward the legacy of those who have fought for equality."

Also present yesterday was unveiling 'host' BBC presenter Naga Munchetty and the Minister for Equalities, Baroness Williams.

Katy Ashton, Director of People's History Museum, said: "That this significant chapter in the history of our democracy should be marked by an event of the people says much about the spirit of Manchester."

Funding for the statue has come from corporate sponsors Property Alliance Group and Manchester Airport Group, the Government's Centenary Fund and a string of individual sponsors including BBC Radio 3 Editor Edwina Wolstencroft.

Often seen as an "underestimated" suffragette, Oldham-born Annie Kenney worked in a cotton mill from the age of 10.

In 1905, she and Christabel Pankhurst – one of Emmeline's daughters – interrupted a Manchester rally to ask Winston Churchill, then MP for Oldham, and his Liberal Party colleague Sir Edward Grey if they believed women should have the right to vote.

They were thrown out and jailed.

It was seen as a pivotal moment in the campaign for the vote, when the suffragettes moved towards more radical, direct protest.

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