A shifting class make-up was not the only demographic change to affect the student body, as in 1869 women were permitted to attend lectures for the first time. This move put the Watt Institution some way ahead of Scottish universities, who were only permitted to allow women to graduate 20 years later following the Universities (Scotland) Act of 1889.[9]: 163 The decision to admit women was made in large part owing to pressure from local campaigner Mary Burton, who later became the Institution's first female director in 1874.[2]: 133–135 [10]