If a man was married to a woman for ten years and did not have any children, in the times of the Talmud, he would have to divorce her or marry another wife to fulfill the mitzvah of procreation. This is only true if he did not have children before. It also assumes that they don't know who is at fault. However, if the man is sterile, there is no point in him divorcing her since he cannot have children with anybody else anyway. After he divorces her, she has no presumption of not being able to have children, and when she marries another man, the new husband needs to also count ten years before applying the rule above.
In deciding whether she gets the payment of Ketubah, the question of whose fault it was coming up again. Here the blame is assigned to the man: since the mitzvah of procreation is on him, it is assumed that not being to have children is his fault – in the absence of any other indicators – and therefore, she, not being at fault, is entitled to full payment of her Ketubah.
Art: Family with a Bird by Bartolome Esteban Murillo
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