It took 24 years before women could take full advantage of all aspects of training at the prestigious institution.[12] After 1868 women took more active leadership roles and achieved influential positions. For example, in 1878 Catherine Drinker, at the age of 27, became the first woman to teach at the academy.[13] One of her pupils, her younger cousin Cecilia Beaux, would leave a lasting legacy at the academy as the first female faculty member to instruct painting and drawing, beginning in 1895.[14] By the 1880s women artists competed with men for top accolades and recognition. Not until much later, however, did the academy gain its first woman on the Board of Directors in 1950.