@sun Akshualli... Tereshkova was a such a disaster that indeed, the positive sexism precluded any more women for a long time. She fucked up all the experimental program by doing whatever she wanted up there[1]. As a result, Savitsakya had to work 10 times harder than necessary just to prove that she had it. In addition, Savitskaya was a daughter of an Air Force general, so she always had a certain cloud of nepotism hanging over her.

[1] The most positive reading was that she had health issues and didn't want to admit to them. As a result, she was unable to unbuckle and reach the experimental materials in racks. However, she also failed attempts to orient the ship manually, and she crowned the debacle by eating food right after landing (provided by local peasants), which screwed up the medical program.