Which astronaut became the first woman to perform a spacewalk?

Soviet cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya became the first woman to perform a spacewalk.

Savitskaya carried out the spacewalk on July 17, 1984, during her second spaceflight aboard the Salyut 7 space station. She and cosmonaut Vladimir Dzhanibekov spent about 3 hours and 35 minutes outside the station testing a handheld electron-beam tool designed for welding and cutting in space.

The activity was part of an effort to demonstrate construction and repair techniques that could support future orbital stations. Savitskaya’s achievement came nearly two decades after Alexei Leonov completed the first spacewalk by any person in 1965.

Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman in space, flying Vostok 6 in 1963, but she did not perform a spacewalk. Kathryn Sullivan became the first American woman to do so in 1984, several months after Savitskaya. Sally Ride was the first American woman in space, not the first woman on a spacewalk.