CONVENTION HELPS SWAY WOMEN IN SUPPORT OF DOLE-KEMP TICKET.

Byline: Michael Winerip The New York Times

A national political convention always gives a party a bounce in the polls, and there is evidence that the tightly scripted television gala being beamed nightly from San Diego this week is reaching into this middle American city and winning over some of the women the Republicans are striving so hard to attract.

A week ago Nanette Ream, a Republican voter who owns Fidelity Tours, a small travel business, felt she could not support Bob Dole because he was too much the captive of big business and big money. But she liked the selection of Jack Kemp, she is impressed with how well the Republicans have orchestrated their message of inclusiveness, and she got a kick out of Susan Molinari, even if the Republican congresswoman from New York is not going to make the world forget Henry Clay or Daniel Webster.

``She's like a little Mary Lou Retton of the Republican Party,'' Ream said.

Kathy Magel, a businesswoman working out of her home, and an independent voter, was leaning toward President Clinton as of last week. But the Kemp selection, the Monday night lineup of two former presidents who are rarely seen publicly now - Gerald R. Ford and George Bush - plus the Reagan video and the speeches by Nancy Reagan and Colin Powell absolutely dazzled her.

``Do you think they can keep it up?'' she asked the next morning, adding: ``I definitely won't vote for Clinton now. I'm leaning Dole-Kemp, though I can't take out Perot, yet.''

Jana Demchak, director of development for a pregnancy center offering alternatives to abortion, usually votes Republican but remained undecided until Dole selected a running mate who opposes abortion and the party's delegates adopted its anti-abortion platform Monday. She, too, is now on board for Dole.

Still, if the Republican ticket is narrowing the gender gap this week, there appears to be a long way to go here in Stark County, a place that mirrors national voting trends. A poll of the county in May, performed for The New York Times, showed Clinton ahead of Dole by 52 percent to 29 percent among registered women voters, and it is not hard to find Republican and politically independent women here who have not been won over by what they have seen this week, or who are indeed angered by it.

This is a place where most of the men and women who make up the backbone of the county Republican Party - Charles and Sarah Brown, W.R. Timken Jr., Rep. Ralph Regula, Janet Weir Creighton - believe abortion should be legal, a private matter rather than one for politicians.

Leading Republican businesswomen in the community like Amelia Renkart-Thomas, president of a fifth-generation family floor-tile business, and Nancy McPeek, an assistant vice president for Bank One and past president of the local United Way, remain angry with Dole for what they see as his flip-flop over abortion tolerance language in the party platform.

Renkart-Thomas, who voted for Dole in the Republican primary, is now leaning toward President Clinton. McPeek is undecided. ``I have major, major concerns about the influence of the conservative right,'' she said.

The parade of Republican women speaking from the convention podium has not softened Renkart-Thomas' feelings. ``I'm angry that they'd have all those moderates speak last night who essentially say, `Just ignore the platform, it doesn't make a difference,' '' she said. ``I'm a lawyer by training, and I think words do make a difference, and I feel condescended to.''

The gender gap is in part about social welfare policy. Programs like welfare, job training, subsidized housing and legal aid tend to serve more women than men, because women generally earn less than men and are more often the ones who must care for children when a family comes apart.