To explain why she voted against confirming Justice Kavanaugh, Senator Heitkamp wrote movingly of her work on violence against women and the experiences she heard from survivors in North Dakota. The senator took a principled stance when the outcome was uncertain, and likely sacrificed her seat in the Senate in the process.

Her counterparts across the aisle have been targeted for their votes as well. Because Senator Susan Collins of Maine voted yes, a group plans to donate three million dollars to her opponent in 2020. After Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska broke with her party to oppose Justice Kavanaugh, conservative pundits immediately called for a primary challenge to oust her from her seat. (Ask Joe Miller how that turns out.)

Yet we seem to expect much less from the men in the Senate, who will walk away from this nomination unscathed.

How many people demanded that Senator John Hoeven of North Dakota or Senator Dan Sullivan of Alaska defend their votes? Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona and Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska won plaudits for their hand-wringing and then predictably fell in line.

Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia — another red-state Democrat leading comfortably in his own re-election race — waited until Justice Kavanaugh had the votes and announced he’d vote yes. None of them will face consequences to their reputations or careers.

They are not alone. Throughout the process, men overlooked Justice Kavanaugh’s behavior to criticize the women who reported it. Senator Dianne Feinstein of California has been roundly vilified, both for withholding Dr. Blasey’s claim in accordance with her wishes and for the fact that it eventually leaked. Without a hint of irony, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina rejected an investigation into allegations against Justice Kavanaugh but demanded a “wholesale and full-scale investigation” into Senator Feinstein’s handling of the letter.

Amy Chua, a professor at Yale Law School, became a target of social media scorn when The Guardian reported she told students that it was “not an accident” that Kavanaugh’s clerks “looked like models.” But that didn’t really spur a close look at Justice Kavanaugh’s hiring practices. Instead, Ms. Chua bore the brunt of the firestorm. (It is perhaps equally telling that, of Justice Kavanaugh’s early supporters, Ms. Chua and Lisa Blatt, a feminist attorney, have faced enormous pressure to denounce him, with reputational consequences that their male counterparts are unlikely to face.)