Thousands turn out for unveiling of Emmeline Pankhurst statue in Manchester

Thousands of people turned out in the freezing cold on Friday to welcome home Emmeline Pankhurst – the first female statue in Manchester that isn’t Queen Victoria.

The Moss Side-born suffragette was the overwhelming winner in a public vote three years ago to choose which woman should be immortalised in bronze, beating Victorian novelist Elizabeth Gaskell, anti-racism campaigner Louise da-Cocodia and “Red” Ellen Wilkinson, Labour cabinet minister and leader of the Jarrow March.

Members of the public then chose the final design, by sculptor Hazel Reeves. Her last big commission was the “cracker packer” statue in Carlisle, honouring the lives of women biscuit factory workers in the Cumbrian city.

Reeves chose to portray Pankhurst in full tub-thumping mode, standing on a chair as she rallied a crowd. Helen Pankhurst, the suffragette’s great-granddaughter, was among those who unveiled the statue on Friday, 100 years to the day after some women got the vote for the first time in the UK.

With her was 12-year-old Fatima Shahid, a pupil at Manchester Enterprise Academy, who told the 6,000-strong crowd that she hoped this was “just the first” of many Mancunian women who will be honoured in sculpture form.

A thousand schoolchildren were among the many who marched to St Peter’s square for the unveiling, chanting “deeds not words” as the bronze sculpture was revealed.

Beforehand, they danced to Sisters Are Doin’ It For Themselves by Aretha Franklin and Annie Lennox and waved homemade banners. One had felt-tipped “I would rather be a rebel than a slave,” one of Pankhurst’s most famous sayings, and surrounded it with red love hearts.

Metrolink, which runs Manchester’s busy tram system, agreed to pause the trams through the square during the event, to ensure the their warning “toot!” did not ruin the moment. Earlier, 94-year-old Nancy Sawyer had volunteered to chain herself to the railings to stop the trams from disturbing the ceremony.

Many in the crowd, including Andy Burnham, Greater Manchester’s mayor, were wearing sashes in suffragette green and purple, and rosettes saying “rise up women”.

Wendy Eachus, 62, was dressed in her old school hat tied with purple ribbon, walking with the help of a lilac frame. She is one of the “Waspi” women campaigning against state pension inequality. “We are following in the footsteps of the suffragettes,” she said. “Without Emmeline Pankhurst we would not be able to campaign today.”

Until Friday, 16 out of the 17 statues in Manchester city centre were of men. The exception is Queen Victoria, erected 117 years ago, according to local councillor Andrew Simcock, who started the campaign and was the only man who spoke at Friday’s launch.