Michael O'Malley, associate professor of history at George Mason University, characterizes Rothbard's "overall tone regardthe civil rights movement and the women's suffrage movement to be "contemptuous and hostile". Rothbard criticized women's rights activists, attributing the growth of the welfare state to politically active spinsters "whose busybody inclinations were not fettered by the responsibilities of health and heart". Rothbard argued that the progressive movement, which he regarded as a noxious influence on the United States, was spearheaded by a coalition of Yankee Protestants, Jewish women and "lesbian spinsters".