10/5 5:45 AM PT -- Bette deleted the tweet and apologized, saying, "The too brief investigation of allegations against Kavanaugh infuriated me. Angrily I tweeted w/o thinking my choice of words would be enraging to black women who doubly suffer, both by being women and by being black."

She finished by saying, "I am an ally and stand with you; always have. And I apologize."

Bette Midler chose to make a point about women in a very provocative way ... and people are PISSED about it.

Bette tweeted Thursday -- in the midst of protests in D.C. by women who strongly oppose the Supreme Court confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh -- "Women, are the n-word of the world."

She added to her point by saying women are ... "Raped, beaten, enslaved, married off, worked like dumb animals; denied education and inheritance; enduring the pain and danger of childbirth and life IN SILENCE for THOUSANDS of years."

Midler ends her tweet by saying women "are the most disrespected creatures on earth."

In 2 hours, her tweet has elicited almost 7 thousand replies, many of which are blasting her for minimizing racism while at the same time hurting the feminist movement.

Others are pissed that Midler, a rich white woman, is comparing the plight of women to the history of mistreatment of black people.

And, there are some just demanding she delete the tweet immediately. She hasn't ... yet