When Representative Thomas Massie, Republican of Kentucky, left Washington in July for the long summer recess, he had nearly a dozen Republicans ready to sign on to his effort to force a vote on his bill demanding that the Justice Department release all of the Epstein files.

When he returned on Tuesday, Mr. Massie had just three still on board — and they were all women.

Each defied President Trump in backing the effort, and each appeared moved to do so at least in part because of experiences that made them sympathetic to the accusers of the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who died in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

On Wednesday, with the White House warning G.O.P. lawmakers that signing on to the discharge petition demanding the full release of the Epstein files would be viewed as a “very hostile act,” a number of Republicans who had previously expressed support for the petition quietly backed off.

But for Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Nancy Mace of South Carolina and Lauren Boebert of Colorado, three attention-courting politicians who went ahead and signed anyway, the Epstein affair appears to transcend loyalty to Mr. Trump.

The gender divide within the House G.O.P. on the Epstein case echoes one that emerged earlier this year in the Senate during fraught confirmation hearings for Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary who faced his own accusations of having abused women, all of which he denied. Then, too, despite widespread private concerns among Republicans about Mr. Hegseth’s fitness for the job, three women were among the few G.O.P. senators willing to publicly voice skepticism.

Then, as now, the women were under immense pressure from a vengeful White House to fall in line. In both cases, most of their male colleagues who had previously expressed hints of concern cited what they said were equally compelling reasons not to act on those concerns.