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To many left-leaning Americans, it is resoundingly clear that women who backed Donald J. Trump in the presidential election voted against their own self-interest.

Liberal women, in particular, have spent recent days practically stunned, stewing over how other women could have rejected Kamala Harris, who would have been the first woman to lead the nation in its nearly 250-year history. Instead, they chose a candidate who spews misogyny seemingly with glee. For the second time.

One voter from Maine, interviewed after Mr. Trump declared victory, offered a takeaway shared by many. As she put it, “The sisterhood did not stand up.”

In many ways the election results seemed to contradict generations of progress made toward women’s equality and for feminism generally. Women have made strides in nearly every facet of American life in recent decades, generally making up a greater proportion of the U.S. work force than in the past, taking on high-paying jobs and outpacing men in higher education — though they remain underrepresented at the top levels of both business and government.

They now find themselves in a country where Mr. Trump won decisively with a campaign that pitted men against women, sitting down with podcasters who trade in sexism and choosing a running mate who had criticized single women as “childless cat ladies.” Mr. Trump took credit for appointing the Supreme Court justices who overturned the constitutional right to abortion but appeared to pay little price at the polls. Immediately after the election social media posts were circulating by men that read, “your body, my choice.”

But women themselves clearly were divided in the election. Exit polls show that 45 percent of female voters cast ballots for Mr. Trump, and far more white women voted for Mr. Trump than Black women. The compounding rejection of first Hillary Clinton then Ms. Harris has exposed an uncomfortable but steady undercurrent of American society: Women do not necessarily agree on what counts as progress or a setback.