Rowbotham was especially influenced by Marxist social history as practised by E. P. Thompson and Dorothy Thompson. Combining a Marxist analysis with feminism, Rowbotham contends that capitalism not only systematically oppresses the working class, but also particularly oppresses women. In her view, women are doubly oppressed as they are forced to sell their labour to survive, but also forced to use their labour to support their husbands and children. Rowbotham is critical of traditional Marxist history for what she sees as the neglect of such issues as family history, the role of housewives in supporting the economy, sexuality, and maternity. Rowbothbam argued that the traditional Marxist history by focusing on a class conflict missed sexual oppression. Likewise, she has criticized those Marxists who contend that sexism did not exist in Communist societies with the claim that sexism was caused by capitalism as doing a diservice to history. Rowbotham has argued that those Marxist historians who see women's history as a "distraction" from the main theme of the class struggle are presenting a misleading version of history.