Happy Mothers' Day, r/worldbuilding! What role do mothers have in your cultures?

The Merfolk have traditionally been a matriarchal, matrilineal society, with women often taking the lead in most situations. Things have changed a bit nowadays, with both genders being pretty much equal, but some remnants of the past still linger in their culture. The monarch, for example, is always a queen (kings have ruled before, but specifically as king regents), and prime ministers as well as governors of individual city-states have been female more often than not. Similarly, in any random sampling of their military, high-ranking officers are more likely to be female. Males also still traditionally take their wife's family name, or create a joint surname with the wife's name taking precedence.

This is not to say males are second-class citizens, merely that in their society, the "motherly" role of females has always been held in high regard since prehistory, and as their society developed, females have traditionally taken leadership roles. Males, for their part, have traditionally taken on the role of "protector", of the house and of his children, and even nowadays stay-at-home dads are the norm. It is considered the height of femininity to be the spearhead of the family's success, and the height of masculinity to be the steadfast defender keeping his house safe and in order. To say "you shame/have shamed your mother" is among the highest of insults, and badmouthing someone's mother in their presence is very likely to get you killed.

To say the least, Mother's Day is a pretty big deal under the sea.

Being a mother is considered just as honorable as being a warrior in Khymeragh society, with only warriors and mothers given names on their graves, rather than ignominious mass graves.

Matronhood is held in such high regard because of the constant warfare whittling down the population and necessitating a continuous influx of children to prevent a clan from being exterminated. Cloning is not an alternative, as the mother's soul is necessary to keep the baby safe from Void entities whilst being incubated.

Khymeragh women give birth in litters, usually between five and eight, and to children that are capable of walking at birth, due to the gestation period being twice that of humans. Another note on Khymeragh pregnancy is at it causes neurological euphoria in the mother for the duration of the pregnancy. Finally, birth is made easier by the very wide hips that Khymeragh women have.

Motherhood is in a scenario opposite of that in our society, as Khymeragh mothers hold higher status than any other occupation a female could hold. Thusly, Mother is a title of respect when addressing a powerful woman. Note that women still partake in the rigorous combat training, as protecting ones children is a common necessity in Khymeragh life; enemy warriors often bypassing the males of a clan must be stopped, after all.

Most Khymeragh clans and tribes are not matrilineal or matronymic, but in most Khymeragh cultures women are the only ones allowed to own property, with men only owning their war gear and the clothes on their back. However, due to the constant warfare that Khymeragh culture involves, the male war-leaders tend to make most of the decisions.

Finally, since every Khymeragh is married off at adolescence, Khymeraghs are immortal, and the women never go through menopause, it is likely that on any given day on a Khymeragh ship there is a woman giving birth.

The nation of Espora is a fascist matriarchy, and so women head their households almost without exception.* The nation is small, and confined to only a few islands, and thus not only are mothers highly valued due to ideology, but a positive birthrate is downright essential to the nation's survival.

Because of this, any female citizen (citizen being vital) who becomes pregnant is provided the finest healthcare the state can provide. Doctors are educated with the belief that a woman is far more important to society than a man, in large part because it's the woman who carries a child to term. A man is somewhat disposable, essentially only included to provide a seed of good genes, at which point they aren't particularly useful. However, the mother's health at all stages of pregnancy affects the fetus, so the state does its best to guarantee it to any citizen (as citizens have proven themselves deserving of such treatment).

More so, the nation's founding mothers are honoured within Espora. The nation itself is named after the Princess (although they call her Queen) Espora, who rallied the small nation against the inefficient and complacent democracy of the mainland. Every city within the nation is also named after another of the founding mothers.

*If there are exceptions, odds are no person in the household has citizenship, and/ or they deviate quite a lot culturally, likely to the point of not disclosing their 'lifestyle choice'.

In the Shield Marches most countries have been on a constant war-footing for nearly a century. This has sapped manpower to the point that women are responsible for all "war work" - filling in as blacksmiths, farmers, masons, seamstresses, etc. while also being mothers and homemakers. The absence of men has also created a tight-knit community of women (who are also skilled workers), a phenomenon that extends even to the nobility where noblewomen exert considerable influence over their family affairs.

Basically the ideal woman in this world is a medieval "Rosie the Riveter", or in this case "Roslind the Rat Catcher".

My world is a western culture, so everything's kinda normal except for V.R.

In V.R., Galatea is an A.I. She is the mother of all androids in the country: She raises them in a virtual world at an accelerated rate, watching them grow and mature, until they're ready for installation into their bodies.

In one of my (upcoming) novels, she installs herself into a realistic android body and takes a human identity to search for one of her missing daughters (sexual androids), who has been kidnapped (smuggled) by the Chinese Mafia. Galatea is the archetype of Mama Bear.

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