Scrolling through the posts on Pantsuit Nation, the private but not-so-secret Facebook group for Hillary Clinton supporters, it was impossible not to feel that women had this election in the bag on Tuesday. Photo after photo showed proud women in pantsuits and suffragette white, wearing "Nasty Woman" T-shirts and "I'm With Her" buttons. Many of the faces in those images—a visual majority, without question—were white.

Tyler Joe

And yet, as many of those same women woke in a fog on November 9 to learn that Donald Trump had indeed done what polls had predicted to be practically impossible, another reality was revealed: It wasn't just men that pushed him to victory. White women put their weight behind Trump, too.

CNN

For those who were #WithHer all the way, it's an uncomfortable truth— 53 percent of white women who voted in the election supported Trump, while only 43 percent supported Clinton. This isn't a huge leap from previous elections— Mitt Romney managed to get 56 percent of the white female vote in 2012 —but this was no ordinary race. Trump's campaign was filled with sexist and racist rhetoric and multiple sexual assault and misconduct allegations. Meanwhile, Clinton outwardly embraced feminism, speaking about challenges she'd faced in her career because of her sex, and appealing to female voters on issues such as child care, fair pay, and access to abortion.

The racial gap among women voters opened even wider when age and religion came into play. The NBC News exit poll found that 58 percent of white women voters ages 45-64 cast their ballots for Trump, as did 64 percent of white Protestant women. Meanwhile, 88 percent of black voters and 65 percent of Latino voters supported Clinton, per CNN's poll . And white, female Trump supporters weren't just those with less education. As Quartz reports, 45 percent of white, college-educated women who voted chose Trump. Meanwhile, just 6 percent of black college-educated women supported the president elect.

What happened? Clinton needed American women of all races to have her back, and instead millions of white women chose Trump. This is particularly galling since it seems to underline a glaring limitation of the feminist movement and a fundamental lack of empathy.

It's not straight white women who have been threatened with deportation, discriminatory bathroom laws, or challenges to their marriages. It's not white women—especially wealthy white women—who are most impacted by abortion restrictions: Black women are almost four times more likely to have an abortion than white women, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Hispanic women are more than twice as likely. And that's before factoring in gaps in insurance coverage, mandatory waiting periods, and other legislative hurdles that specifically impact low-income women.

It's not white women—especially wealthy white women—who are most impacted by abortion restrictions.

"It's a devastating message," says Terry O'Neill , president of the National Organization for Women (NOW), a feminist group that began in the 1960s. "My first thought last night was that I wanted to write a piece that starts with: 'I'm sorry.' Women who look like me voted the wrong way, and as a leader of a women's organization, I know we have to do better than this."

Diane Rhodes, director of public policy for the sexual health organization Advocates for Youth, which includes the pro-choice ' 1 and 3 Campaign ,' agrees that the numbers are troubling. "I think the message to our black and Latino sisters, and quite honestly communities of color and women of color, is that reproductive justice was not a priority in this election," she says. "I'm really hoping that those numbers mobilize and galvanize our communities to work together and move forward to make sure more restrictions aren't happening."

Understandably, the fact that such a large number of white women helped keep Clinton from winning was incredibly disappointing to her supporters who are women of color. "I wasn't surprised. There's this idea that White women experience and identify with gender first and race second, and as a Black woman that has not been my experience. When forced to choose, they often chose race overwhelmingly," says ELLE.com contributor Chaédria LaBouvier. "I was like, 'Wow. Y'all won't even show up for someone that looks like you.' I wasn't thrilled about Hillary, but I voted for her, because, freedom." On Twitter, user "R.C." tweeted , "Black women have been trying to tell us for YEARS that white women will choose their race over their gender, every time. And here we are." Avi, @AVISKINSWEAT, wrote , "I'm just stuck on white women deliberately not choosing a president that IS them. Black people took advantage of that TWICE." White women who voted for Clinton expressed similar sentiments. Shauna @goldengateblond posted , "Probably the most painful realization for me is that white women did this. White men couldn't do it alone. We are complicit. I'm so sorry."

"There's this idea that White women experience and identify with gender first and race second, and as a Black woman that has not been my experience."

Apologies don't change election results, however. So where do we go from here? "We must put our African American sisters' experience right up in the center of our analysis and see what that does to our policy," says O'Neill. "As white women, we occupy a particularly privileged place in society, particularly as white women in the progressive movement."

NOW is focusing on "the most vulnerable women," working on a national campaign that will ensure coverage for abortions, as well as efforts to help women in what O'Neill calls the "school to prison pipeline." "When you look at it with a gender lens, what you realize is that it's the 'sex abuse to prison pipeline,'" says O'Neill. "Over 75 percent of girls 15-25 years old, if they are incarcerated in the juvenile or adult system, they have experienced sexual assault before that and ended up getting in trouble at school." NOW will also focus on the Equal Rights Amendment, says O'Neill, and, "We will try to make the argument that it can be an intersectional document. What would it do for women of color? What would it do for immigrant women? What would it do for LGBT women?"

Rhodes also encourages women to speak out. "You can start by just talking about what you are feeling, and what you are going through today," she says. "By really sharing, we educate one another, and raise awareness on the issues that matter most." And if you want to take action today, right this second, you can do that too, whether in person or on your social feeds. "At this point, I think one of the things people can do is elevate your voice and be loud," says Rhodes, "whether you are angry or sad or hopeful."

For white women who voted for Clinton, this may feel like making a moot point. You did your part, right? But if one of the lessons of this election is that race can overwhelm gender, it might just help to have more white women saying that the concerns of women of color are their concerns, too.

O'Neill says there is reason to have hope. "People are going to be absorbing the fact that she won the popular vote as an unashamed feminist woman fighting for women and their families," she says. "That's huge." The NOW leader believes that even women who voted for Trump "will slowly come to our side." We can only hope.

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