Judith Godrèche, a French actress who lives in Los Angeles, said she worried about Mr. Weinstein’s sway for years after she rebuffed his advances at the Cannes film festival in 1996. “There are some things you can’t repair: women’s souls and bodies and memories and traumas that are going to be there forever, careers that have been damaged,” she said. “You can’t get that back.”

Even for those who spoke out about other men, the spectacle of Mr. Weinstein’s arrest proved triggering.

“I started shaking,” said Drew Dixon, who was one of three women who accused the music mogul Russell Simmons of rape in a December article in The New York Times. “I was stunned that it had escalated to something with real legal consequences for him.”

Those consequences, of course, may not result in a conviction. But among the legions of men who have been professionally and socially toppled by the #MeToo movement since the first articles about Mr. Weinstein were published in October, very few have faced criminal charges. (Mr. Simmons has also been the subject of investigations by the New York police; he, too, has denied nonconsensual sex.) Laura Madden, one of the first women to come forward against Mr. Weinstein, said that for social change to happen, “it’s important to recognize his criminal behavior. Sometimes that gets lost in cultural contexts.”

Still, Ms. Madden, who alleged that Mr. Weinstein continually asked her for massages while she was his employee, did not view his fall as “a celebration,” she wrote in a text message on Friday, “because he’s a father.” (Mr. Weinstein has four daughters.)

She was among several women who took a broader view of his circumstances. “As a Christian, I have felt compelled to pray for him,” said Ms. Burr, “and also that everybody, myself included, will find some resolution and peace.”

Ms. Godrèche said she was most affected as she was driving her 13-year-old daughter to school on Friday morning. As she watched her child, who knew what her mother went through, “my heart was exploding with a feeling of joy and hope,” Ms. Godrèche said. “I was feeling that it was such an important day for all of us. I basically did this for her.”