Vote 100: Three generations on how far UK has come and work still to be done for gender equality

Britain still has "a long way to go" to achieve true gender equality almost 100 years on from women winning the right to vote.

Three generations of women told ITV News "significant" strides had been made but more needs to be done, a day ahead of the centenary of the 1918 Representation of the People Act

Gender pay gaps and pregnancy discrimination still exist much like they did a century ago.

But they told ITV News that the legacy of prominent Suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst lives on and continues to inspire many people.

Plans for statues of Pankhurst and Millicent Fawcett are in place for Manchester and Westminster later this year.

Elaine DeFriez, who helps run the Pankhurst Centre in Manchester, believes that more is needed to be done to achieve true equality in the UK.

"Things have improved but I think the journey isn't finished yet, she says.

"There's a long way to go. We have to be careful we don't backslide. Hard-won rights are easily lost."

She adds: "The gender pay gap was existent then and is existent now.

"Women were sexually harassed and if they were pregnant they were marginalised and lost employment and were often put into institutions - and to a degree that happens now."

Elaine DeFriez believes there is still 'a long way to go'.

Mary Buchanan, a former teacher, says she has seen many improvements for women over the past 70 years.

"I have seen the fact that a woman can get a mortgage on her own, women have easy access to birth control and can control their own fertility," she says.

"You don't have to be married anymore, if you want to that's fine.

"Changes like that have been very important to progress that women can make."

Asked if men have always been on-board with equality, she says: "Some have. Not every man has though."

Mary Buchanan says there have been 'significant improvements'.

Roni Altman, a 17-year-old student, thinks it is "definitely" still harder to be a woman than a man.

"Because of these ingrained notions about what a woman can and can't do people think we've progressed so much they can't look forward, they can't see how much further we have to go," she says.

Roni adds: "The legacy she [Emmeline] left, it gives me the courage to go through my day-to-day life, and make my voice heard in situations where I may be shying away in the background."

They all agree that a modern-day Pankhurst would be "all over" Twitter, and probably have her own Instagram and Snapchat account.

Roni Altman says it is still harder to be a woman than a man.