Valentina Tereshkova
Her flight set the women's altitude record, and held it for 29 years, until Valentina Tereshkova in 1963 became the first woman in space, orbiting the Earth 48 times solo in the Soviet Union's Vostok 6. According to the editors of "Flying" magazine, in their book "Sport Flying", published by Ziff-Davis in 1976, Jeannette was "the first woman in space, a claim allowed even by Valentina Tereshkova." She was also the first woman to pilot a flight to the stratosphere, and according to her obituary in "The New York Times", the first person to do so through a layer of clouds.