Not quite correct, there were female models in power armour released with “rogue trader”, but very little lore and nothing specifically referenced female space marines. When they began actually writing 40K and 40K lore then they introduced the concept of the geneseed and it only working on males and they also introduced the sisters of battle who are indeed females in power armour but are not considered to be “female space marines” as such.
None of it was actually retconned, it just wasn’t explicit in “rogue trader” and later became so when the first actual 40K edition was released.
I’ve been playing 40k since the late 80s. I know the lore. I was there for it. I have watched it change over the decades. And sure, the female warriors weren’t explicitly labelled Space Marines, but they clearly were intended to be “the same” as the male models that would become Space Marines. The genestealers in Rogue Trader weren’t labelled tyranids either, but no one claims they weren’t by citing lack of specific lore at the time they were first published
The only reason those models didn’t continue to be made is because misogyny meant the models didn’t sell. So female space marines got written out of the lore, and the sisters, in all ways lesser than space marines, were introduced, so as to not offend the fan base of the time with equality.
Not quite correct, there were female models in power armour released with “rogue trader”, but very little lore and nothing specifically referenced female space marines. When they began actually writing 40K and 40K lore then they introduced the concept of the geneseed and it only working on males and they also introduced the sisters of battle who are indeed females in power armour but are not considered to be “female space marines” as such. None of it was actually retconned, it just wasn’t explicit in “rogue trader” and later became so when the first actual 40K edition was released.
I’ve been playing 40k since the late 80s. I know the lore. I was there for it. I have watched it change over the decades. And sure, the female warriors weren’t explicitly labelled Space Marines, but they clearly were intended to be “the same” as the male models that would become Space Marines. The genestealers in Rogue Trader weren’t labelled tyranids either, but no one claims they weren’t by citing lack of specific lore at the time they were first published
The only reason those models didn’t continue to be made is because misogyny meant the models didn’t sell. So female space marines got written out of the lore, and the sisters, in all ways lesser than space marines, were introduced, so as to not offend the fan base of the time with equality.