Manchester is getting its first statue of a woman in 100 years

Moss side born feminist activist Emmeline Pankhurst is to be the first women in 100 years to receive such tribute in Manchester.

The location of the statue will be in the city centre, but the exact location is yet to be confirmed.

The council will be inviting sculptors to submit their designs, and the public will be able to chose the winner from a shortlisted group.

The final sculpture will be unveiled on International Women’s Day in 2019.

Although other nominees such as author Elizabeth Gaskell, anti-racism campaigner Louise Da-Cocodia, and writer Elizabeth Raffald received substantial votes, Pankhurst secured 56 per cent out of the 5,301 votes cast.

Pankhurst fought for women’s rights from 1903-1928.

Pankhurst was the leader of the Suffragette movement and Women’s Social and Political Union, which fought for equality of the sexes, and predominantly voting rights for women. She inspired a movement which is still very apparent today, and more than half of online votes in the WoManchester Statue project poll voted for Pankhurst to receive the honour.

Deemed one of the “100 Most Important People of the 20th Century” by Time magazine in 1999, they said: “She shaped an idea of women for our time, she shook society into a new pattern from which there could be no going back.”

Pankhurst’s influence exceeded her own time, and can be held responsible for many opinions on feminism today, and campaigns such as Emma Watsons “He for She”, and “Reclaim the Night”.

Didsbury coucillor Andrew Simcock confirmed the project he self-launched, privately funded and not from Manchester City Council’s budget.

Pankhurst’s activist roots began here in Manchester, holding the first WSPU meeting in her home in Chorlton-on-Medlock, which has been since transformed into The Pankhurst Centre Museum.