In the original Rogue Trader, there were female Space Marines right?

Question

Is that correct? Because canon has changed before, but is this right?

Answer 1

Here's an article on the topic, citing some comments by Alan Merrett. According to him, prior to Rogue Trader they tried selling female miniature, but nobody was buying, so by the time Rogue Trader/40k rolled around, they were only producing male miniatures. Since they only had male miniatures, the lore was written to support that state of affairs. Basically, merchandising shaped the lore, but the lore has been males-only from the start.

Early Citadel ranges had female versions of most character types[.] But when we started selling[,] retailers kept complaining to us that customers weren't buying the female models[.] So we took the female models out of circulation. [...]

So when we got to the new Rogue Trader ranges and exciting new Space Marine model ranges it was difficult to see how we could logistically add in an occasional female model to the mix[.] So we didn't make any female ones except for the very occasional ones[.] All the background fluff about why there are only male Marines is there to justify a commercial logistics issue.

Here's another article discussing the same quote, which also points out how horrifying the Space Marine creation process is:

And we know that when a young boy is chosen to be a Space Marine he goes through such incredible changes to his body that he is essentially unrecognizable[.]

So the question is: what would a female Space Marine look like? Well, they wouldn’t look like Sisters of Battle, because they’re now much taller and broader and tougher and stronger. [...] No, a female Space Marine would look, for all intents and purposes, like a male Space Marine[.]

If you are roleplaying, and want to play a female Space Marine, remember that Rule 0 is a thing: "The Game Master is always right". If you are a Game Master and want to allow female Space Marines, then they exist. If you are a player and you want to play a female Space Marine, ask your GM.

As a GM, if one of my players asked me to play a female Space Marine, I wouldn't be willing to utterly contradict the lore (since I have some players who are quite attached to it), so instead I'd spring an aeons-long project of the Adeptas Sororitas finally coming to fruition - a fully functional female Geneseed, bringing with it a new generation of Space Marine-equivalent Sisters of Battle.

Then, as I'm That Kind of GM, I'd probably inject a shipload of conflict around what has just happened. Is a geneseed not from an emperor-created Primarch considered Heretical? Does this new Chapter fit under the Adeptus Ministorum, or should it be moved to the Adeptus Astartes? Should the Abbess be considered Chapter Master or Primarch of the new Chapter? Where did the female geneseed actually come from?

Answer 2

There's the Adepta Sororitas, but they are not Space Marines

The original rules in Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader (1987) do not explictly speak about this. There are however multiple places that imply Space Marines are male:

Page 13:

9 Space Marines and a Sergeant make up a 10 man Squad of Marines.

Page 154, detailing the Legiones Astartes (or, "Space Marines"):

Marines belonging to the same Chapter are called battle-brothers or battle-kin.

Page 160, detailing the Fortress-Monastery of the Space Wolves chapter:

Each of the fighting brethren has his own cell, a simple room in which he sleeps.

However, the book points out that each chapter follows their own rules, so who knows. For example, there is the Adepta Sororitas, described on page 268:

An interesting example is the Adepta Sororitas, an order of devotional warrior women. The Adepta is organized along similar lines to the Space Marines. The Sisterhood, as it is generally known, is led by the Abbess and includes many lesser ranks and offices in a similar way to the Adeptus Astrartes.