History Main / MandatoryMotherhood

* ''Series/DeviousMaids'': All of the important female characters have children. Marisol has an adopted son, Eddie, because her husband left her; Zoila has Valentina; Genevieve has Remi; Rosie has Miguel; Adrian and Evelyn had a son who died by being hit by a car when he was young, a loss they've never gotten over (and they later foster); Spence and Peri have Tucker. When Rosie fights with Lucinda about Lucinda spanking Miguel in Season 2, she tells Lucinda she has no right to judge as she doesn't have kids. Lucinda is devastated and calls it a very cruel thing to say. She's ultimately revealed to have had a daughter, but her father Kenneth forced her to give her up for adoption.

* Randall Garrett's notorious ''Literature/TheQueenBee'' has a group of shipwrecked men on a deserted world decide to turn the three women with them into broodmares to try to found a colony (as required by law) despite the long odds against such a small seed population succeeding, odds that only get longer when the number of women is reduced to one lobotomized woman. In response, Creator/JoannaRuss wrote ''Literature/WeWhoAreAboutTo'', in which a woman in a similar situation reacts by killing all of them -- Creator/PoulAnderson ''Literature/EveTimesFour'', in which the apparently identical situation turns out to be an unsuccessful hoax by a guy who just wanted a harem, was probably written in response as well.

* It's stated that this happens in Ayn Rand's ''Anthem.''

* Randall Garrett's notorious ''Literature/QueenBee'' has a group of shipwrecked men on an deserted world decide to turn the three women with them into broodmares to try to found a colony (as required by law) despite the long odds against such a small seed population succeeding, odds that only get longer when the number of women is reduced to one lobotomized women. In response Creator/JoannaRuss wrote ''Literature/WeWhoAreAboutTo'' where a woman in a similar situation reacts by killing all of them and Poul Anderson probably wrote ''Literature/Eve Times Four'' in response as well. In that one the apparently identical situation turns out to be an unsuccessful hoax by a guy who just wanted a harem.

* A sore point for many fans of ''TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse'' is how werewolves are expected to marry kinfolk (humans who carry the recessive shapeshifter gene) and hopefully make werewolf babies, since lycanthropy is passed through plain old sexual reproduction in this game, regardless of whether or not either one has other plans. It's treated like ArrangedMarriage at best and flat-out rape at worst. While it is ''possible'' for a [[AmazonBrigade Black Fury]] to reach a leadership position without having born at least one child, few will take such seriously without a high-Glory Battle Scar to explain the lack of a working womb.

* Randall Garrett's notorious ''Literature/QueenBee'' has a group of shipwrecked men on an deserted world decide to turn the three women with them into broodmares to try to found a colony (as required by law) despite the long odds against such a small seed population succeeding, odds that only get longer when the number of women is reduced to one lobotomized women. In response Joanna Russ wrote ''Literature/We Who Are About To'' where a woman in a similar situation reacts by killing all of them and Poul Anderson probably wrote ''Literature/Eve Times Four'' in response as well. In that one the apparently identical situation turns out to be an unsuccessful hoax by a guy who just wanted a harem.

** Onan was killed by God for refusing to have a child with Tamar, his dead brother's wife, as per the laws of levirate marriage (in short, he was required to marry his brother's wife and their first son would be his brother's, to continue on his brother's family line). Of course, he told her he ''would'' (thus avoiding public shaming and being cast out of his family) and then performed ''coitus interruptus'' to prevent it.[[note]]However, many misinterpreted the text to mean that Onan preferred having ADateWithRosiePalms over actual sex, and in some cultures and languages, including Hebrew, [[NeverLiveItDown his name has become the basis]] for the [[PersonAsVerb modern word]] for "masturbation".[[/note]]

** Just as Tyrion is pressed into marrying Sansa, his sister Queen Cersei is pressed into marrying another noble, Loras. He's from a house she hates, and even if he wasn't, Cersei has only just got rid of her previous unloved husband and is aghast of the prospect of getting another one. Not helping the case is her ruthless father Tywin, who's discussing his daughters' prospective marriage in terms of livestock husbandry.
* ''Series/Supergirl2015'': Pleasantly subverted when Maggie tells Alex that she doesn't want kids. Alex *really* does, and they break up over it, but neither party are presented as being unreasonable or wrong. The split is heart-breaking for both of them, but they part ways maturely and amicably after realizing they just don't see eye-to-eye on what their future together looks like.

* An ''Series/AlfredHitchcockPresents'' story has a woman take a drug that shows her a future where she is bedridden and continually pregnant. A doctor in our time has accidentally invented a virus that kills all men; the surviving women set up a society where some wome are designated as breeders. After she returns to our time she kills the doctor to prevent this future, only to find his research will be carried on by his son, who of course bears the same name.[[/folder]]

* Randall Garrett's notorious ''Literature/Queen Bee'' has a group of shipwrecked men on an deserted world decide to turn the three women with them into broodmares to try to found a colony (as required by law) despite the long odds against such a small seed population succeeding, odds that only get longer when the number of women is reduced to one lobotomized women. In response Joanna Russ wrote ''Literature/We Who Are About To'' where a woman in a similar situation reacts by killing all of them and Poul Anderson probably wrote ''Literature/Eve Times Four'' in response as well. In that one the apparently identical situation turns out to be an unsuccessful hoax by a guy who just wanted a harem.

* ''Series/Supergirl2015'': Pleasantly subverted when Maggie tells Alex that she doesn't want kids. Alex *really* does, and they break up over it, but neither party are presented as being unreasonable or wrong. The split is heart-breaking for both of them, but they part ways maturely and amicably after realising they just don't see eye-to-eye on what their future together looks like.