Human reproduction is a basic economic activity in every society. It includes activities such as maternal care, childcare, old age provision, poor relief, healthcare, and labour protection. In pre-industrial times, human reproduction was typically a part of kin-based household economies, but since the onset of industrialization two new institutional solutions have developed: the male breadwinning system and the welfare state.

In historical perspective, the male breadwinning system builds on earlier household-based reproductive practices. It constitutes a basically private approach, marked by a female specialization in reproductive activities. According to male breadwinning ideology, men are primarily providers, responsible only for professional and financial aspects of the reproductive process. Married women, by contrast, are supposed to perform most of the work needed to reproduce the population. This work is unpaid and consequently married women are economically dependent on their husbands.

In practice, of course, male breadwinning systems diverge more or less from the strict gender division of labour prescribed by male breadwinner ideology. In particular, married women have often participated in breadwinning activities. More importantly, however, there is no industrialized society in which the male breadwinning system has been capable of carrying out the national reproductive process without public support. Along varying institutional paths, public institutions have intervened to take on responsibility for smaller or larger parts of the national reproductive burden. Welfare states have taken shape.

Welfare states have differed markedly in their attitude to the male breadwinning system, and although all welfare states have modified their adherence to the male breadwinning model in recent decades, important distinctions remain.