The Women’s March on Washington on Jan. 21 is an apt metaphor for the moment: movement as primal scream. It grew out of a post on Facebook, was unconnected to any established women’s organization, and has no set list of demands. Hundreds of thousands of women say they are going, but will their anger turn into a broader movement?

“We need a ‘come to Jesus’ moment,” said C. Nicole Mason of the Center for Research and Policy in the Public Interest at the New York Women’s Foundation. “I feel like the denial is very severe.”

In the weeks after the election, in conversations with nearly two dozen advocates for women, I heard the fractures of a movement still regrouping after an unexpected defeat. They know that Mrs. Clinton didn’t stand for the feminist movement directly, and that you could vote against her without saying you were voting against feminism. But one of the movement’s goals was shattering that ultimate glass ceiling. Some say the failure to do so was so devastating that now is the time to rebuild from the ground up. Others insist it’s time to stay the course.

The challenges are a proxy for the questions the Democratic Party must face over class, race, identity politics and tactics. The women’s movement must balance how to broaden its message without losing its base. Courting the white working class could alienate black women still smarting over white women voting for a man whom many saw as racist — a choice that seemed to put racial identity over gender solidarity. Some younger women shun the feminist label altogether. It’s not clear how far the tent can stretch without leaving some outside.

The overall struggle is to stay relevant in the age of Trump. “Before the election, even I was stunned by the sheer number of people I knew who came forward saying they’d been survivors of sexual assault,” said Vivien Labaton, co-executive director of Make It Work, which promotes working families’ economic security. “It’s amazing to me the lightning speed at which these issues have receded. The story is the total omission of women. Overnight.”