Your fault attribution is mis-informed. From an MIT interview with Valentina Ponomareva (http://web.mit.edu/slava/space/interview/interview-ponomareva.htm http:

Your fault attribution is mis-informed. From an MIT interview with Valentina Ponomareva (http://web.mit.edu/slava/space/interview/interview-ponomareva.htm http://web.mit.edu/slava/space/interview/interview-ponomarev...): Q. What was the fate of the women's group after Tereshkova's flight? A. It is well known that Korolev's attitude toward the presence of women at work and especially on the launching pad was very negative. He believed that on a launching pad, like on a ship, a woman brings misfortune. (Korolev was the head of the Soviet space program at the time).