Risen like Gothic is not merely sexist, it is outright misogynistic. Worse, not only are the devs misogynists, many of the players are, at least the ones who see fit to post their filth and drivel in any of the official forums, which themselves receive no moderation. I have seen player posts on their saying that being a whore is a womans natural role, and when I have protested the post, I have received a warning and the original post left to stand. It is perfectly open, they make no secret of it.
All the ridiciulous claims that women wouldnt fit into the game as a protagonist are complete drivel and anyone who believes otherwise is clearly lying or retarded since this is for most people a SINGLE PLAYER GAME unafected by anyones choice of character, the story is basic and simple and could have been very easily adapted to a character of either gender with no effort to speak of. Also it is amusing to see people with no historical knowledge make assumptions about women throughout history. Women may have had less opportunities than men and been opressed, but this did not stop a small number of us from becoming rulers, generals, soldiers, mercenaries, pirates, bandits, mercenary leaders and just about any profession or occupation you can think of. The fact that it was unusual means nothing. Any character in an RPG is set to HEROIC standards, and can realistically be of either gender. The average woman may have been tending the fields, but so was the average man. RPG's are not about average.
No, they chose not to include women because they make sexism and misogyny a selling point of their games, which is why I will never pay for such a game and indeed would discourage anyone else from doing so. I frankly hope they go out of business sooner rather than later because their attitude is an insult to women and to any decent human being.
The protests about their lack of inclusion of women as player characters, and most fo the npcs being whores or servants has persisted throughout every iteration of this series, gothic and risen, and there has been no change. So it is clearly deliberate.