Weeks of protest and dramatic days of testimony and speeches on Capitol Hill have brought the US to the point where ultra-conservative federal judge Brett Kavanaugh is now poised to join the supreme court. Even Donald Trump said the woman who accused him of attempted rape, California university professor Christine Blasey Ford, was credible when she gave her raw but precise testimony to Congress, although he later mocked her at a rally.

As Republicans voted on Saturday to confirm Kavanaugh, leading US feminists reacted to the development and talk about what’s next for America’s women.

Linda Sarsour, one of the organisers of the Women’s March

“This is not just a blow to women. It’s about immigration, refugees, the rights of people of color, voting rights, reproductive rights, Native American rights – this disastrous process and conservative judge represents a rollback in time. It’s what the Republicans have wanted for 20 years. Today I am outraged. I’m exhausted. I have been in Washington, DC, for the last month, since Kavanaugh’s first hearing on September 4, and we have organised protests every day. I feel enraged and disappointed and betrayed.

“And Donald Trump’s conspiracy theories that demonstrators are ‘paid protesters’ is exactly the kind of thing fascist governments say. There are thousands of women here from all over the country, mothers, teachers, nurses, lawyers, black, white – ordinary women. We have done everything we could. There is a longstanding problem that a majority of white women voted for Donald Trump and have supported Kavanaugh – they put their proximity to power over their own interests. But nothing is irreparable. Women are running for office and protesting in record numbers.”

Barbara Ehrenreich, author and activist

“It’s the sheer audacity of the insult that curdles my stomach: the transparency of Kavanaugh’s lies under oath, his self-indulgent rage, the faux FBI investigation. The real attraction of Brett Kavanaugh may have been his choir-boy devotion to executive power, which would seem to guarantee Trump’s right to pardon all the gangsters he has employed, including himself.

“A liberal I know bemoans the fact that Kavanaugh’s ascendency will discredit the supreme court. Actually, that’s exactly what I’m hoping for. The presidency has been discredited, the cabinet is a collection of clowns, the government busies itself with the torture of children. As the more intemperate among us used to say in the 60s: tear it all down!”

Jamia Wilson, executive director of the feminist press at the City University of New York

“It is a very, very sad day for all Americans. Because the process we witnessed is a sham. It has shown us that survivors of sexual violence are still, within rape culture, not being heard and not being listened to.

It’s the beginning of a new wave of organizing, a new surge of righteous indignation and activism

“It’s essential for our elected officials to understand that the people believe survivors. What we have seen goes against the will of the people, but the majority of us know that this is not justice, that it is beneath the constitution and everything it stands for.

“It’s not the end, even though it may feel that way today. It’s the beginning of a new wave of organizing, a new surge of righteous indignation and activism. I believe our actions in the face of this adversity will set the stage for the next 100 years.

Gloria Allred, women’s rights lawyer

“Truth has been the greatest casualty. There has not been fair process for Dr Ford, nor for Judge Kavanaugh, nor for the American public. It was political theater.

It’s absurd that there was a hearing prior to there being an investigation into Dr Ford’s accusations. And when an investigation was permitted, it was limited in time and scope. They did not appear to want the truth, it was an exercise of brute power. It is a dark day for American justice.

“We will remember in November [mid-term elections]. I have never seen so much outrage boiling over from so many women, especially victims of sexual assault. This is the age of the empowerment of women. We are tired of being ignored and having our voices treated as though they don’t matter.”

“Brett Kavanaugh does not bode well for the right for women to control their own bodies, reproductively, and for the survival of Roe v Wade [the 1973 decision that led to the legalization of abortion in the US]. But that would probably be true for any Trump nominee. But the message his confirmation and the speech Susan Collins gave on the Senate floor gives to women who have been sexually assaulted, abused or harassed is fundamentally that you are not to be believed, that American society does not believe you. Unless there is a neutral third party witness, to corroborate, and there is very, very rarely, if ever, such a person.

The message it sends to women is that fundamentally you are not to be believed

“But what Time’s Up and #MeToo are helping to do is eradicate the shame. The gay rights movement succeeded with millions of gay people coming out of the closet, one by one. Now incredible numbers of women who have had this happen to them are coming out of a different closet, if you like, to tell people. The sheer numbers will make the difference. Women have to feel they have this huge community to protect them and lawyers who will go to court for them and funds to pay for that.”

“This vote means the Republican party do not care about women. It’s been a sham. Today I am in Atlanta, Georgia, and we are campaigning for Stacey Abrams, the Democratic candidate for governor. We are organizing a rally and we are at our union conference with hundreds of women.

“What we are seeing is the last throes of the power of the privileged white male elite. Kavanaugh’s display last week was a temper tantrum from someone who has never been told no in his life. Good men who want to be on the right side of history will follow the leadership of women, they will listen to us, they will believe us, they will join us, or they can get out of the way.”