Portraits painted by women’s suffrage leader Sylvia Pankhurst will soon enter the national art collection following a purchase from the Tate gallery.

The four paintings show women working in mills and potteries in Stoke and Glasgow.

Ann Gallagher, Tate’s director of collection for British art, said that the pictures will “expand the way we represent working women as subjects in art history”.

“At a time when gender pay gaps and women’s rights at work remain urgent topical issues, these images remind us of the role art can play in inspiring social change,” she said.

And Helen Pankhurst, Sylvia’s granddaughter, described Sylvia as “an artist as well as a champion of working women’s rights, her first passion not as well known as her second”.

“In these beautiful pieces these interests are powerfully combined,” she says.

A collection of Sylvia Pankhurst paintings has been bought by the Tate