A woman weeps as election results are announced during Hillary Clinton's election night rally in New York, Tuesday, Nov. 8. | AP Photo Shock, anger consume women at Clinton headquarters Prepared to celebrate a historic breakthrough, they found themselves expressing fear instead.

For women who were prepared for a historic breakthrough – their own version of the explosion of joy at Barack Obama’s 2008 victory rally – the election returns that put Donald Trump on the precipice of victory sunk in slowly, turning joy into numbness, and numbness into anger.

Many of Hillary Clinton’s women supporters were in tears and streaming out of the Javits Center Tuesday night, expressing shock and horror at Trump’s surprise showing.


“I have children with autism. This is devastating to me,” said Linda Quintanilha, a civil rights organizer, who was sitting on the empty floor in front of the podium where she had expected to listen to Clinton deliver a rousing victory speech. “I’m scared of the fight for their dignity. My heart is telling me this is not my America.”

Among women who gathered by the thousands at the Clinton election night headquarters, and many who watched at home, there was an overwhelming sense of fear for the sexism they felt pouring in from the polls.

“I can’t believe this is happening,” said Democratic consultant Hilary Rosen, a stalwart Clinton supporter. “People hate women.”

Many women in the empty Javits Center concluded that the country was sexist and rejected Clinton in a large part because she was a woman -- and was now headed backwards when it came to women’s rights.

“If Hillary Clinton were a man, tonight would be a much different night,” said Dana Nicolette, who manages a wellness center on Martha’s Vineyard. “Do people not know what autonomy over our own body means? They haven’t read history books? I have no words. I have no idea. I don’t know how as a woman, you could vote for that person who I don’t even want to say their name right now.”

Early exit polls showed Clinton beat Trump by double digits among women voters -- Clinton won women by 12 points, which FiveThirtyEight.com said was the largest gender gap since the 1970s. And 43 percent of women said they would be scared if Trump were elected president. But non-college educated white women favored Trump, 62 to 34 percent, according to ABC News exit polls. College educated white women, meanwhile, favored Clinton by only 51 to 45 percent.

The gender gap, which tightened as the exit pollsters re-weighted their results to match the returns, didn't seem to be enough to put Clinton over the edge. And it was far lower than the 20 percent that some polls had shown in the wake of Trump's taped comments that seemingly endorsed sexual assault.

“I think part of the population was complacent, listening to the polls, saying we don’t have to worry, she’s going to win,” said New York State Senator Roxanne Persaud. “It's beyond shocking. What Trump represents is regression.”

“As a gay woman it’s terrifying," said Rachel Albert, who said she was sticking it out at the Javits until the bitter end. "In some states it’s still legal to fire people based on their sexuality. Best case scenario, Trump gets impeached and Mike Pence, we know how bad he is based on what he’s done in his own state.”

While many thought they would wake up to a new world Wednesday morning, those who had witnessed similar phenomenon in Europe after the British "Brexit" vote said their biggest fear was that people would settle back into their daily routines and ignore the significance of Trump's election.

"A lot of people in here are going to wake up tomorrow and live the same lives and have breakfast,” said Danish model Elsa Sylvan, who had tears streaming down her cheeks.

