According to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonprofit group that tracks fund-raising, contributions from women are the highest ever at this point in a presidential race, a trend that is definitely benefiting Dole. Between April 1 and June 30, she got $1.1 million, or 43.3 percent of her total donations of more than $200, from women. Recent studies show that women made just 25 percent of the donations to congressional races in 1996, and that those funds were disproportionately directed at Democratic women.

''We are writing history here, we are pushing the envelope,'' Kathleen Harrington, Dole's deputy campaign manager, said of creating a network of women donors. ''Necessity is the mother of invention, and Mrs. Dole is a powerful attraction to women.''

Women are more likely than men to vote; they have been stalwart volunteers in political races; and as candidates themselves their numbers are rising rapidly. But giving money to politicians has been the last frontier for women, and it is taking candidates such as Dole and Hillary Rodham Clinton, who are very popular with women and elevated by them as cultural pioneers, to open up the territory this year.

''Executive women look at Mrs. Dole and see a reflection of themselves,'' said Marie Wilson, president of the White House Project, a nonprofit group whose goal is to elect a woman president by 2008. ''It is very significant that women are beginning to put their money where their trust is - in women leaders.''

Wilson, who lives in New York, said she is ''startled'' at the confidence among Democratic Party activists that Clinton can raise a record-breaking $25 million for a US Senate race. ''The Democratic parties nationally, and in New York, are looking to a woman as the only one who can raise that kind of money,'' Wilson said.

Clinton's fund-raising, which began when she launched a Senate exploratory committee last month, ''is going well,'' said Howard Wolfson, her spokesman. He declined to be specific, noting Clinton was not required to make an official report until the end of the year.

While Clinton is casting a wide net for money - she recently sent out a direct-mail appeal to 2 million potential donors - she is also capitalizing on an almost cult-like following of women admirers in New York to support both her big fund-raising parties and host more intimate affairs, like a brunch planned by bridal designer Vera Wang.

McElveen-Hunter has been a prodigious fund-raiser for such charities as the United Way and Habitat for Humanity, but she had ''never raised one penny in my life for a politician.'' It wasn't until April when she was read a Wall Street Journal article about Dole being last in first-quarter fund-raising that she first got mad and then got mobilized.

''It said that somebody named Gary Bauer - I don't even know who that was - was ahead of her,'' said McElveen-Hunter, who owns Pace Communications, a specialty publisher of airline and other corporate magazines. ''It made me angry that a woman who has dedicated her life to public service, who has worked diligently and with integrity, wasn't raising any money. And I wondered if she would be having the same problem if she was a guy from Texas.''

So McElveen-Hunter opened her Rolodex and started enlisting her female friends from North Carolina to New York and California. She quickly organized a Dole lunch in Greensboro that raised $115,000. She has signed on 30 finance committee co-chairwomen who each have pledged to raise $10,000 and plan $100,000 events. In two days last week, the campaign got $200,000 at four fund-raisers organized by North Carolina women who were inexperienced at politics but not reluctant to ask neighbors, business colleagues, and bridge partners for $1,000 checks.

''This is an opportunity for women who have not been involved in politics but have their own companies, money, and opinions to finally step up and step out,'' said Betty Wade, the former owner of a temporary-services agency and one of the organizers of the Piedmont Club lunch held on Dole's 63d birthday.

Clyde Wilcox, a political scientist at Georgetown University, said if Dole can build a network of women raising money from women, it not only will be unprecedented, but it could break an historical gender divide in giving. Men make political contributions through business networks and for access, he said. Women are more inclined to answer direct-mail appeals on ideological issues. Traditionally, men write $1,000 checks, while women send in $100 contributions, he said.

Conservative activist Bauer says he has the largest percentage of female contributors of all the GOP contenders (45 percent, or $771,000 in the second quarter) because women like his pro-family, antiabortion stands. Bauer said he may be making a mistake by not forming a female-donor network, like Dole's. ''I guess I should go hunting where the ducks are,'' he said.

That is what some 25 women activists did in 1985 when they founded Emily's List as the first political action committee to raise money specifically for Democratic women candidates who support abortion rights. Today it has a direct-mail donor network of 50,000, raised $7.5 million for candidates in 1998 mostly through contributions of $100 or less, and takes credit for helping to elect seven senators, 29 House members, and three governors.

''The old-boy network never believed women could win, so they never gave them contributions, which guaranteed they wouldn't win,'' said Ellen Malcolm, president and a founder of Emily's List. ''Because voters now see women can win, the credibility gap for candidates like Elizabeth Dole and Hillary Clinton is greatly reduced.''

Despite Bush's big advantage in the polls and the purse, many women are moved by Dole. They jostle to get close to her or hug her, beg to be in a picture with her, bring their daughters to witness what they call a moment in history, the first serious run for president by a woman. ''It stirs my heart to be here,'' Kay Johnson, owner of a Winston-Salem strategic planning firm, said after shaking Dole's hand at the Piedmont Club.

During her trademark ''Dole Stroll'' - getting close to the audience as she makes her prepared remarks - the candidate emphasizes issues pollsters say are important to women: gun control, safer schools, smut filters on the Internet, a better work-family balance. Oddly though, when she is pressed to discuss her female trailblazing, Dole seems personally disconnected from the go-girl enthusiasm she generates.

''Some women will say to me, `I drove my daughter halfway across the state to shake the hand of a woman we care to believe in again,''' Dole says in a dispassionate tone. ''It's humbling, and it's very inspiring, and I appreciate it.''