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At least according to older lore, Astra Militarum tends to sort men and women into separate regiments. It makes sense because men and women had several specific different needs and it was easier to resupply them if each regiment exclusively consisted of one or the other gender.

However, the mono-sex regiments are very boring, so this idea rarely ever gets translated to books.

Still, the majority of Astra Militarum regiments are comprised of mainly male soldiers. But since there is no reason why females are not recruited, such as the Voystrian Firstborn having an arbitrary system where all the first children of every family join the Astra Militarum, and women should still make up at least half of the humans of the Imperium of Man, then why are there no regiments are women are the majority? Even female writers still put a few women in regiments full of men.

Is there any particular reason why we don't see female-majority regiments in books more often? Or women in combat roles in fiction in general, despite the setting clearly encouraging all genders to take up arms?

bibotot wrote:
... then why are there no regiments are women are the majority?

It's a big universe. There probably "are," and your own homebrew regiment certainly can be.

Is there any particular reason why we don't see female-majority regiments in books more often? Or women in combat roles in fiction in general, despite the setting clearly encouraging all genders to take up arms?

Well you see, there are these things called sexism and patriarchy that have impacted both real-world culture and the fictional works they produce. In this essay I will...

EDIT: In the context of 40k specifically, the existence of the sororitas is probably a factor. If you're going to write about an all-female human faction, there happens to already be a canon one that went a long time without a lot of BL novels. So if you're working up a pitch in your head for your next BL novel and you get as far as, "all-woman regiment," I think you at least have to pause to consider whether this should be a sisters' story instead of a guard story.

There's maybe also a little hesitation caused by the knowledge that putting women front and center in a story (especially in a faction that is usually not exclusively female) is inevitably going to cause at least a little whining from the more misogynistic members of our hobby. Imagine, if you will, the kind of unpleasant reactions you'd see if Disney announced the next Star Wars miniseries was going to be set in the Old Republic, but the jedi cast would be exclusively women.

In general, if a BL novel or short story were to feature an exclusively female regiment, I think most of us would just go, "Oh cool," and file it away as a memorable subfaction quirk.

40Ks background and novels are mostly to support the miniatures.
Up until recently female guard miniatures were rare.
I'm not sure but since the Cadian update you could make a whole female army, right? I'd say that makes a book about female regiments more likely.

It’s mixed now, but Cain’s main regiment was formed from the merger of an all female regiment with an all male one (which caused much of the conflict of the first book) and the series mentions other all female regiments.

The Xenonians from the 3rd ed. Imperial Guard codex and Famous Regiments series in White Dwarf were all female (converted Escher gangers).

Presumably Necromunda raises all female regiments from House Escher, since other houses seem to contribute regiments.

 Wyldhunt wrote:

bibotot wrote:
... then why are there no regiments are women are the majority?

It's a big universe. There probably "are," and your own homebrew regiment certainly can be.

Is there any particular reason why we don't see female-majority regiments in books more often? Or women in combat roles in fiction in general, despite the setting clearly encouraging all genders to take up arms?

Well you see, there are these things called sexism and patriarchy that have impacted both real-world culture and the fictional works they produce. In this essay I will...

I disagree, while sexism and misogyny exist, GW has always been inclusive and welcoming to everyone (like it should be). They have even made multiple public statements about this. I’m only talking about GW brands. I’m sure you can easily find a company that publishes horrible books about xy and z.

There is likely a less sinister reason to why you do not see it often, mainly being the vast majority of hobbyists being male and authors want their readers getting immersed in their novels. Other reasons could range from there are already all female factions with plenty of books to choose from (Broken Saints was rly good IMO). To understanding that at the end of the day GW is a company whose main goal is to make money, maybe they have concluded it wouldn’t sell and make much profits. We already see them heavily favoring space marines because that’s their money making baby.

But even as I stated earlier, there are a lot of books that have female protagonists or have major characters female. Anything by Dan Abenett usually has a good ratio of male to female characters. I have personally read Crossfire. Master of Mankind, Carrion Throne, Path of the Seer, Faith and Fire, and Betrayer which are great novels.

Finally, at the end of the day though, the cool thing about the universe is you can make up a regiment yourself and make up your own lore. The universe is made to do pretty much whatever you want and it be lore wise (I said pretty much, calm down there killers lol). Just have fun, and if you get hate who cares continue doing you, the vast majority of hobbyists are welcoming and loving.

Until very recently, all BL authors have been men, many of them self-taught as authors. And watching a man try and write a story involving an all female cast interacting with each other feels like a train crash waiting to happen akin to a worse version of C.S. Goto. You don't see 40k works passing the Bechdel test very often for a reason. Writing from the perspective of an ork is much less likely to be bad, and if it is, to then give offence. The best we've managed to get is the very occasional side character like Lotara Sarrin who doesn't entirely come across as a plot device for the men (looking at you. Bequin and Amberley Vail).

Gaunts Ghosts are also a mixed regiment in the later books at least.

For the next passage a general disclaimer: please don't understand this as any claim that women "only have one task: bear children" or the like. This only refers to a setting that is really grimdark and includes a regime that forces its planets to send millions of its population into war without a real chance of ever returning. A setting in which the grim calculus of attrition and population numbers forces harsh decisions...

I don't know if that was ever a consideration for the writers, but when I started to figure out fluff for my own homebrew regiment I stumbled on the point that under the assumption that the tithes are regular enough and big enough to really put a dent into a planets population AND given that its culture is not strictly monogamic, a population can bounce back far easier from the loss of a million men then from a million women.

Stupid example: lets say Planet Whocares V has a population of 10 Million, half men half women, with 2 million women in reproductive age and a not monogamic culture. It gets tithed, 1 Million men are send of world. Thats a huge dent in the population, yet the birth rate is almost not affected as all women that could bear children are still there and have the possibility to get pregnant if they want. Would they have tithed 1 million of the younger women, the birth rate would have been cut in half, until the younger generations come of age. If that is a warzone and the Imperium tithes the planets to the brink of breaking that really does matter a lot.

Now of course this is easy to write around when you come to fluff. One can always state that
1. for some unknown reason the sex-ratio on Whocares V is 2:1 in favor of females, so they are the natural choice for the imperial guard
2. Medicine in the Imperium allows for a far greater span of reproductive age that does not overlap that much with the tithing age for soldiers
3. The Society of Whocares V is matriarchaic and it seems absurd to them to send men into battle
4. Medicine is good enough, that the planet can tithe women that already got their children.
5. Womb Vitae or similar techniques are employed that decouple the birth rate from the size of female population.

 Lord Damocles wrote:
The Xenonians from the 3rd ed. Imperial Guard codex and Famous Regiments series in White Dwarf were all female (converted Escher gangers).

Presumably Necromunda raises all female regiments from House Escher, since other houses seem to contribute regiments.

This was my first thought too

Xenonian Free Companies (also spelt Zenonian) fought in both the 3rd War for Armageddon and the 13th Black Crusade.

There is a single official model of one (i.e. not a converted Escher) in the 3rd ed Schaeffer's Last Chancers set- Warrior Women is a Xenonian:


The 3rd edition Codex reference:

Honestly the most likely reason is already noted- GW doesn't make an all female option for the Imperial Guard model line. Therefore there's no pressure to create all female armies as a major book feature by the BL.

BL follows the models, even to the point where you realise that a lot of things within BL are very badly described or not described at all. This way if the model changes a bit (or a lot) the books kind of (or entirely) still work.

If GW created an Imperial Guard unit that could duel build male and female models then chances are we'd see at least one or two books, or a series if it worked; focused around notable female dominated/entire armies.


I'm very sure that the wealth of the setting will have "Amazon" style Imperial Guard armies comprised entirely, or mostly, of women. Heck chances are you would likely find a few in the archives of short stories or backgrounds of some bigger earlier books and such.

 Overread wrote:
Honestly the most likely reason is already noted- GW doesn't make an all female option for the Imperial Guard model line. Therefore there's no pressure to create all female armies as a major book feature by the BL.

BL follows the models, even to the point where you realise that a lot of things within BL are very badly described or not described at all. This way if the model changes a bit (or a lot) the books kind of (or entirely) still work.

If GW created an Imperial Guard unit that could duel build male and female models then chances are we'd see at least one or two books, or a series if it worked; focused around notable female dominated/entire armies.


I'm very sure that the wealth of the setting will have "Amazon" style Imperial Guard armies comprised entirely, or mostly, of women. Heck chances are you would likely find a few in the archives of short stories or backgrounds of some bigger earlier books and such.

I agree. I think it is notable that the only known lore example (to my knowledge) of an all-female regiment explicitly has aesthetics based off the existing Escher ganger models (see Xenonians above). So it is relatively easy to build an army of them.

bibotot wrote:
At least according to older lore, Astra Militarum tends to sort men and women into separate regiments. It makes sense because men and women had several specific different needs and it was easier to resupply them if each regiment exclusively consisted of one or the other gender.

However, the mono-sex regiments are very boring, so this idea rarely ever gets translated to books.

Still, the majority of Astra Militarum regiments are comprised of mainly male soldiers. But since there is no reason why females are not recruited, such as the Voystrian Firstborn having an arbitrary system where all the first children of every family join the Astra Militarum, and women should still make up at least half of the humans of the Imperium of Man, then why are there no regiments are women are the majority? Even female writers still put a few women in regiments full of men.

Is there any particular reason why we don't see female-majority regiments in books more often? Or women in combat roles in fiction in general, despite the setting clearly encouraging all genders to take up arms?

Well, let's agree to disagree. I believe all men / all women regiments to be more interesting as they have their own specificities that don't exist anymore (at least where I live) due to most of the regiments being mixed. Only the foreign legion is still all men, and they have their own interesting culture.
An all women regiment would be different and totally interesting too !
But I think that even in the brutal world of 40k, in which every person is needed, women may still be frowned upon in combat roles, like in the real world, and for the exact same reasons. Maybe even more seeing as the world of 40k is even more harsh !
So there would be female snipers, nurses, technicians, pilots etc but less fighters. And 40k usually, in its books or games, focus more on combats and wars ...
But otherwise I think it's just because of the authors, as said before. Until very recently, BL wasn't very inclusive at all, because it was a white British male oriented company for white british male customers. No problem in that btw, but nowadays they are getting more open so we'll see some female warriors / soldiers, maybe

It’s a big galaxy. Each Tithed world will have its own Regimental Traditions.

We know from the Cain novels that Valhalla raises single-sex regiments. And from Cain’s own commentary, that’s because single sex = no babies being born within the regiment.

Yet, it’s also clearly not a hard and fast rule, as the Regiment Cain is attached to for a chunk of his career is mixed sex, as it’s an amalgam of two regiments which had been mauled fighting off a Tyranid invasion.

As the series progresses, not a huge amount is made of the regiment being mixed sex.


But what’s true for Valhalla by no means binds any other Regiment or Tithed World. Some will only send men, some might only send women. Some will send mixed sex recruits, some single sex Regiments.


And don’t underestimate the pressure of your Tithe. If you need to provide X recruits, you provide X recruits. Depending entirely upon how your populace is doing numbers wise, even the longest tradition can be ignored if it’s how you meet that Tithe. All the time you’re meeting your Tithe? Nobody really cares all that much what else you’re doing.

But very bad things happen if you don’t meet your Tithe. And somehow “well we did have the spare bods, but too many had the wrong sort of Rude Bits” is not going to wash.

bibotot wrote:
At least according to older lore, Astra Militarum tends to sort men and women into separate regiments. It makes sense because men and women had several specific different needs and it was easier to resupply them if each regiment exclusively consisted of one or the other gender.

However, the mono-sex regiments are very boring, so this idea rarely ever gets translated to books.

Still, the majority of Astra Militarum regiments are comprised of mainly male soldiers. But since there is no reason why females are not recruited, such as the Voystrian Firstborn having an arbitrary system where all the first children of every family join the Astra Militarum, and women should still make up at least half of the humans of the Imperium of Man, then why are there no regiments are women are the majority? Even female writers still put a few women in regiments full of men.

Is there any particular reason why we don't see female-majority regiments in books more often? Or women in combat roles in fiction in general, despite the setting clearly encouraging all genders to take up arms?

In-universe: Because men simply make more sense in combat roles.

Men are on average stronger than women. Muscle mass matters. What is more, efficiency matters - if you take a man and a woman of similar mass, man will have more upper body strength and in fact more (even if not much) strength in general. And since caloric consumption depends in large part on body weight, yeah...

As for why no mixed units... you do know what happens when young healthy men get mixed with young healthy women, right? Now think about why that might be bad for combat effectiveness and morale...

Read this as well:
https://warontherocks.com/2014/11/heres-why-women-in-combat-units-is-a-bad-idea/

Out-of-universe: Because it largely copied the real world, and majority of soldiers in real world are men, for the above reasons.

 AldarionTelcontar wrote:

bibotot wrote:
At least according to older lore, Astra Militarum tends to sort men and women into separate regiments. It makes sense because men and women had several specific different needs and it was easier to resupply them if each regiment exclusively consisted of one or the other gender.

However, the mono-sex regiments are very boring, so this idea rarely ever gets translated to books.

Still, the majority of Astra Militarum regiments are comprised of mainly male soldiers. But since there is no reason why females are not recruited, such as the Voystrian Firstborn having an arbitrary system where all the first children of every family join the Astra Militarum, and women should still make up at least half of the humans of the Imperium of Man, then why are there no regiments are women are the majority? Even female writers still put a few women in regiments full of men.

Is there any particular reason why we don't see female-majority regiments in books more often? Or women in combat roles in fiction in general, despite the setting clearly encouraging all genders to take up arms?

In-universe: Because men simply make more sense in combat roles.

Men are on average stronger than women. Muscle mass matters. What is more, efficiency matters - if you take a man and a woman of similar mass, man will have more upper body strength and in fact more (even if not much) strength in general. And since caloric consumption depends in large part on body weight, yeah...

As for why no mixed units... you do know what happens when young healthy men get mixed with young healthy women, right? Now think about why that might be bad for combat effectiveness and morale...

Read this as well:
https://warontherocks.com/2014/11/heres-why-women-in-combat-units-is-a-bad-idea/

Out-of-universe: Because it largely copied the real world, and majority of soldiers in real world are men, for the above reasons.

Broadly speaking, those in-universe arguments don't really apply to the 41st millennium. Or rather, they do apply and don't apply at the same time, on a case-by-case basis.

Firstly, the physical differences between men and women on modern day Earth don't apply consistently to the Imperium, where the variance between entire worlds is likely to be greater than that between sexes today. For example, Catachans are treated as equivalent to malnourished underhivers by the Departmento Munitorum, but these are almost certainly not going to be anything like equivalent in individual physical condition. Catachans are noted as being so strong that they are bordering abhuman, your typicall underhiver is going to be undersized and generally below average health for humanity. In addition, the Imperium's population is on the other side of widespread genemodding in the Dark Age of Technology and will have great variance between worlds as a result. Base humanity is thought to maybe not even exist by the time of the Unification of Terra.

Essentially, at the scale the Departmento Munitorum operates at, they abstract unit strength out to a level that sexual dimorphism is irrelevant.

Cultures also vary massively- some will have issues with mixed units, other canonically have mixed units without much problem. Cadians are the most well known- every citizen of Cadia is a conscript, all have military service, and the regiments are mixed gender (although this lore translates poorly into the models or even Black Library until recently). Cadian regiments are not plagued by "morale" issues as a result. As mentioned, Valhallan units are typically segregated, suggesting that their planetary culture is more problematic for mixing units. This will vary hugely depending on the culture of the planet and the Imperium contains myriad cultures within it. Merged regiments obviously can end up mixed, but these are always formations created out of necessity rather than choice.

I do think it is likely that a greater proportion of female combatants serve in planetary defence forces for various reasons mentioned in this thread. Doubly so if said PDF is a militia or national service formation.

Re. real-world reasoning, no disagreements there.

 AldarionTelcontar wrote:

bibotot wrote:
At least according to older lore, Astra Militarum tends to sort men and women into separate regiments. It makes sense because men and women had several specific different needs and it was easier to resupply them if each regiment exclusively consisted of one or the other gender.

However, the mono-sex regiments are very boring, so this idea rarely ever gets translated to books.

Still, the majority of Astra Militarum regiments are comprised of mainly male soldiers. But since there is no reason why females are not recruited, such as the Voystrian Firstborn having an arbitrary system where all the first children of every family join the Astra Militarum, and women should still make up at least half of the humans of the Imperium of Man, then why are there no regiments are women are the majority? Even female writers still put a few women in regiments full of men.

Is there any particular reason why we don't see female-majority regiments in books more often? Or women in combat roles in fiction in general, despite the setting clearly encouraging all genders to take up arms?

In-universe: Because men simply make more sense in combat roles.

Men are on average stronger than women. Muscle mass matters. What is more, efficiency matters - if you take a man and a woman of similar mass, man will have more upper body strength and in fact more (even if not much) strength in general. And since caloric consumption depends in large part on body weight, yeah...

As for why no mixed units... you do know what happens when young healthy men get mixed with young healthy women, right? Now think about why that might be bad for combat effectiveness and morale...

Read this as well:
https://warontherocks.com/2014/11/heres-why-women-in-combat-units-is-a-bad-idea/

Out-of-universe: Because it largely copied the real world, and majority of soldiers in real world are men, for the above reasons.

I don’t think your in-universe reasoning holds much water in a galaxy where humans have evolved into Ogryns, Ratlings, Psykers and Beastmen. If a human can turn into an Ogryn a planet with the average woman having the muscle mass (or more) of an average man is not really a farfetched idea.
Even in the real world gender roles and designations mostly are based on culture, not on biology.

One reason we might see women appear more in stories in command or planetary defence or navy roles could also just be that because GW doesn't have to make models for them, but they are part of the world; its much easier for authors to put women into those roles because there's just a bit more creative freedom as they aren't bound by model kits.



That said Haighus answers really well on the concept of social structures in the Imperium. Whilst there are some rough underlaying morals and structures that are found on most worlds; the sheer quantity and variety means that you'll likely find everything somewhere.

From worlds where women are near slave-cast to worlds where they are the ruling cast. Similarly worlds that will produce all women regiments to worlds that only produce all male. and every possible combination between the extremes


In general the Imperium at large doesn't care if you're male or female. It's also pretty open to if you identify as something else so long as you aren't a Xeno or Chaos created mutation (even though they hate the mutant, beneficial mutants like Rattlings and Ogyns are allowed).

In the end so long as you can pull the trigger on a lasgun you can, and will serve the Emperor.

 Haighus wrote:

 AldarionTelcontar wrote:

bibotot wrote:
At least according to older lore, Astra Militarum tends to sort men and women into separate regiments. It makes sense because men and women had several specific different needs and it was easier to resupply them if each regiment exclusively consisted of one or the other gender.

However, the mono-sex regiments are very boring, so this idea rarely ever gets translated to books.

Still, the majority of Astra Militarum regiments are comprised of mainly male soldiers. But since there is no reason why females are not recruited, such as the Voystrian Firstborn having an arbitrary system where all the first children of every family join the Astra Militarum, and women should still make up at least half of the humans of the Imperium of Man, then why are there no regiments are women are the majority? Even female writers still put a few women in regiments full of men.

Is there any particular reason why we don't see female-majority regiments in books more often? Or women in combat roles in fiction in general, despite the setting clearly encouraging all genders to take up arms?

In-universe: Because men simply make more sense in combat roles.

Men are on average stronger than women. Muscle mass matters. What is more, efficiency matters - if you take a man and a woman of similar mass, man will have more upper body strength and in fact more (even if not much) strength in general. And since caloric consumption depends in large part on body weight, yeah...

As for why no mixed units... you do know what happens when young healthy men get mixed with young healthy women, right? Now think about why that might be bad for combat effectiveness and morale...

Read this as well:
https://warontherocks.com/2014/11/heres-why-women-in-combat-units-is-a-bad-idea/

Out-of-universe: Because it largely copied the real world, and majority of soldiers in real world are men, for the above reasons.

Broadly speaking, those in-universe arguments don't really apply to the 41st millennium. Or rather, they do apply and don't apply at the same time, on a case-by-case basis.

Firstly, the physical differences between men and women on modern day Earth don't apply consistently to the Imperium, where the variance between entire worlds is likely to be greater than that between sexes today. For example, Catachans are treated as equivalent to malnourished underhivers by the Departmento Munitorum, but these are almost certainly not going to be anything like equivalent in individual physical condition. Catachans are noted as being so strong that they are bordering abhuman, your typicall underhiver is going to be undersized and generally below average health for humanity. In addition, the Imperium's population is on the other side of widespread genemodding in the Dark Age of Technology and will have great variance between worlds as a result. Base humanity is thought to maybe not even exist by the time of the Unification of Terra.

Essentially, at the scale the Departmento Munitorum operates at, they abstract unit strength out to a level that sexual dimorphism is irrelevant.

Cultures also vary massively- some will have issues with mixed units, other canonically have mixed units without much problem. Cadians are the most well known- every citizen of Cadia is a conscript, all have military service, and the regiments are mixed gender (although this lore translates poorly into the models or even Black Library until recently). Cadian regiments are not plagued by "morale" issues as a result. As mentioned, Valhallan units are typically segregated, suggesting that their planetary culture is more problematic for mixing units. This will vary hugely depending on the culture of the planet and the Imperium contains myriad cultures within it. Merged regiments obviously can end up mixed, but these are always formations created out of necessity rather than choice.

I do think it is likely that a greater proportion of female combatants serve in planetary defence forces for various reasons mentioned in this thread. Doubly so if said PDF is a militia or national service formation.

Re. real-world reasoning, no disagreements there.

Sgt. Cortez wrote:

 AldarionTelcontar wrote:

bibotot wrote:
At least according to older lore, Astra Militarum tends to sort men and women into separate regiments. It makes sense because men and women had several specific different needs and it was easier to resupply them if each regiment exclusively consisted of one or the other gender.

However, the mono-sex regiments are very boring, so this idea rarely ever gets translated to books.

Still, the majority of Astra Militarum regiments are comprised of mainly male soldiers. But since there is no reason why females are not recruited, such as the Voystrian Firstborn having an arbitrary system where all the first children of every family join the Astra Militarum, and women should still make up at least half of the humans of the Imperium of Man, then why are there no regiments are women are the majority? Even female writers still put a few women in regiments full of men.

Is there any particular reason why we don't see female-majority regiments in books more often? Or women in combat roles in fiction in general, despite the setting clearly encouraging all genders to take up arms?

In-universe: Because men simply make more sense in combat roles.

Men are on average stronger than women. Muscle mass matters. What is more, efficiency matters - if you take a man and a woman of similar mass, man will have more upper body strength and in fact more (even if not much) strength in general. And since caloric consumption depends in large part on body weight, yeah...

As for why no mixed units... you do know what happens when young healthy men get mixed with young healthy women, right? Now think about why that might be bad for combat effectiveness and morale...

Read this as well:
https://warontherocks.com/2014/11/heres-why-women-in-combat-units-is-a-bad-idea/

Out-of-universe: Because it largely copied the real world, and majority of soldiers in real world are men, for the above reasons.

I don’t think your in-universe reasoning holds much water in a galaxy where humans have evolved into Ogryns, Ratlings, Psykers and Beastmen. If a human can turn into an Ogryn a planet with the average woman having the muscle mass (or more) of an average man is not really a farfetched idea.
Even in the real world gender roles and designations mostly are based on culture, not on biology.

Those cultural differences however are based on biology in the real world.

As for in-universe, even if a Catachan woman is stronger than average man, she will still be weaker than Catachan man. So it still makes sense to have men dominate the military, as any Catachan units will be raised based on Catachan standards.

Combat Drugs, Stims, Muscle Grafts, Bionics. All exist, all used in differing amounts across different Imperial Guard regiments. Not so much in modern military.

The upper body strength is also a daft argument here. Can they stand, carry and aim a Lasgun? Then they’re plenty good as Imperial Grade Cannon Fodder. Especially given Lasguns and their ammo packs are explicitly described as being lightweight, so this insistence on upper body strength just doesn’t apply to 40K as it does in the real world.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Combat Drugs, Stims, Muscle Grafts, Bionics. All exist, all used in differing amounts across different Imperial Guard regiments. Not so much in modern military.

The upper body strength is also a daft argument here. Can they stand, carry and aim a Lasgun? Then they’re plenty good as Imperial Grade Cannon Fodder. Especially given Lasguns and their ammo packs are explicitly described as being lightweight, so this insistence on upper body strength just doesn’t apply to 40K as it does in the real world.

Also, increased muscle mass = increased calorie requirements to maintain that muscle mass. There's a reason that no military in the modern world is trying to staff their combat forces exclusively with people with the physique of a Mr. Olympia.

The Imperium already has the space marine beefcakes to waste resources maintaining inefficient physiques on, they don't need to import that kind of thinking to the guard as well.

Ah, but the Space Marine physiology is canonically really efficient. Yes, they need far greater calorific intake than us Mere Smelly Hoomans - but they produce much less waste. So yes they need say, quadruple the Calories, but may only need twice the food mass, because their super guts can breakdown and extract calories with far greater efficiency.

Please note the “may”. I’m not stating that is the exact ratios. Used for demonstration purposes only.

 AldarionTelcontar wrote:

As for in-universe, even if a Catachan woman is stronger than average man, she will still be weaker than Catachan man. So it still makes sense to have men dominate the military, as any Catachan units will be raised based on Catachan standards.

I still love the Adeptus Ridiculous joke (okay, heard it there first- may not have originated there):
The difference between getting pounced on by a Lictor vs. a female Catachan is your hardon serves a purpose.

Anyhoo, I think the overarching story here is that of a catch-22: putting female guards in would empower women, show badass ladies who aren't in skimpy fur-bikinis, etc, etc- but it's not a giant leap to see others could misinterpret the game of simulated violence s violence against women. Likewise, the 80's dark aesthetic GW has includes a lot of casual violence against women (Watch any R rated movie from the 80's, a woman will get hit and/ or be in a compromising situation). Daemonculaba for one, and that time the Grey Knights needed Sister's blood to destroy Daemons.. Ugh.
We also have the Blue/Pink Aisle dichotomy I learned about when I became a Brony. (Yeah, so THIS hapend.) All the "Boy" toys are together in one aisle, and all the "Girl" toys are together in another, and you don't mix & match so an adult male looking for the limited edition Pinkie Pie Year of the horse is seen as "wierd" and MUST be deviant. But- thankfully nowadays both companies and individuals are breaking out of that mindset. Nerf's 'Rebelle' line just one example, and the amount of female Twitch streamers being another. But there's no breaking a long-held mindset overnight so people still think that 40k is a "Boys with Guns" game. Add to that GW is not really one to, say, LISTEN to their fans and buyers!! So I think even if we had a petition by the whole half of the world with a double X (And some that identify as that but have a Y, I don't judge..) for more non-sexualized or non-Joan of Arc rip off models, they'd be like "Meh."

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Combat Drugs, Stims, Muscle Grafts, Bionics. All exist, all used in differing amounts across different Imperial Guard regiments. Not so much in modern military.

The upper body strength is also a daft argument here. Can they stand, carry and aim a Lasgun? Then they’re plenty good as Imperial Grade Cannon Fodder. Especially given Lasguns and their ammo packs are explicitly described as being lightweight, so this insistence on upper body strength just doesn’t apply to 40K as it does in the real world.

Worth noting that the guard recruits are frequently the top x% of the pdf (depending on world etc).

So, depending on how much they weight physical strength/robustness, that may mean the majority of guard recruits are male (but not all, both as the top women will outperform the majority of men and because other criteria might be more sex neutral), and a higher proportion of pdf troops female.

But if you hit the bar, the Mutinorum is not going to care if you’re male or female.

usmcmidn wrote:

 Wyldhunt wrote:

bibotot wrote:
... then why are there no regiments are women are the majority?

It's a big universe. There probably "are," and your own homebrew regiment certainly can be.

Is there any particular reason why we don't see female-majority regiments in books more often? Or women in combat roles in fiction in general, despite the setting clearly encouraging all genders to take up arms?

Well you see, there are these things called sexism and patriarchy that have impacted both real-world culture and the fictional works they produce. In this essay I will...

I disagree, while sexism and misogyny exist, GW has always been inclusive and welcoming to everyone (like it should be). They have even made multiple public statements about this. I’m only talking about GW brands.

Ok, no. Recent years, yes, GW has made statements, and _is_ better about it.
'Always?' Always has no business being in this statement at all. Lets not bury the reality that this was a young white male hobby & business for many a decade. Warhammer pygmies isn't the only horror story lurking back in the company's past.

Voss wrote:
Lets not bury the reality that this was a young white male hobby & business for many a decade.

And?

Those young white males weren't excluding people who weren't young/white/male, and neither were GW.

 AldarionTelcontar wrote:
As for in-universe, even if a Catachan woman is stronger than average man, she will still be weaker than Catachan man.

Lmao, imagine trying to use modern science on a planet that is exclusively populated by 80s action heroes. What an absolute joke.

any Catachan units will be raised based on Catachan standards.

Catachan standards aren't based on physical strength alone but cunning, survival ability, and combat skill. Strength alone doesn't keep people alive on Catachan and it is a massively equal society where if an individual doesn't want children, they don't have children, no questions or judgments. The family unit is so non-existent that soldiers from the same family in the same Regiment won't even acknowledge each other in most cases.

 Lord Damocles wrote:

And?

Those young white males weren't excluding people who weren't young/white/male, and neither were GW.

Considering that people gave GW flak for putting out a statement that white supremacists and nazis were not welcome? Yeah no, there definitely has been parts of the fanbase that has not been welcoming to people outside the white, male, straight vanilla envelope.

Gotta love how an account with ~6 posts comes in to derail the thread based on their politicized understanding of human biology.

 A Town Called Malus wrote:

 Lord Damocles wrote:

And?

Those young white males weren't excluding people who weren't young/white/male, and neither were GW.

Considering that people gave GW flak for putting out a statement that white supremacists and nazis were not welcome? Yeah no, there definitely has been parts of the fanbase that has not been welcoming to people outside the white, male, straight vanilla envelope.

Just because something is predominantly populated by young white males doesn’t mean that it’s racist or sexist. While racism, sexism, hatred etc… exists, the vast majority of hobbyists are welcoming and understanding (regardless of their skin color or sex), including GW. Unless you have some hard statistical evidence that the majority of hobbyists are like that and the company, my comment still holds.

Love everyone, and welcome everyone. This hobby is absolutely for everyone and anyone.

PS you misquoted me. I did not say “ Lets not bury the reality that this was a young white male hobby & business for many a decade.” idk why it says that in your statement.

 A Town Called Malus wrote:

 Lord Damocles wrote:

And?

Those young white males weren't excluding people who weren't young/white/male, and neither were GW.

Considering that people gave GW flak for putting out a statement that white supremacists and nazis were not welcome? Yeah no, there definitely has been parts of the fanbase that has not been welcoming to people outside the white, male, straight vanilla envelope.

Yeah. It's not like GW has ever said "Warhammer is a boys-only club! Girls are icky and have cooties!" or anything of the sort. But that doesn't mean the hobby is equally as welcoming to people of different genders, or ethnicities, or a whole host of other things.