White House Heightens Focus on Female Voters : Politics: Clinton tailors events to appeal to women’s concerns. Polls show their backing has helped his ratings.

Betsy Myers assumed her post in an under-furnished office across the street from the White House this week with little fanfare but considerable symbolism.

The Southern California businesswoman heads a new White House outreach unit devoted to women, and her arrival signals a heightened emphasis on what may be President Clinton’s most important slice of the electorate.

Female voters favored Clinton over George Bush by an eight-point margin in 1992. And in the dawning era of the GOP-leaning angry white male, their importance to Clinton has grown further still.

From all signs, the White House grasps what is at stake.

The schedules of the President and First Lady are rounded out generously these days with events designed to appeal to women. On Tuesday, Clinton spoke to an audience of governors in Baltimore on children’s issues, and listed the family-oriented policy proposals of his term--from increased tax credits for the working poor, to the Family Leave Act, child immunization and the national service program.

“That’s a pro-family policy,” he declared. “We should continue that, not reverse it.”

Cabinet departments, meanwhile, have been pressed to line up one event each month that the President can use to show his concerns for women.

Mrs. Clinton has adopted a strategy designed to appeal to the broadest cross-section of women, while not antagonizing conservative critics. She has recently focused on the need for breast cancer prevention, investment in education and stronger families. She looked into the puzzling illnesses that have afflicted Gulf War veterans.

“Women are a natural target,” says Mark Mellman, a Democratic pollster and regular adviser to the President.

Myers, the sister of former White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers, intends to concentrate her efforts on building bridges to women’s groups and developing programs aimed at promoting their interests. Betsy Myers, who just left a post at the Small Business Administration, also heads an insurance and financial services company in Los Angeles.

For Clinton to succeed in 1996, he will need to overcome daunting challenges by figuring how to mobilize an ambivalent liberal base, making inroads among moderate voters and finessing some of the tricky character issues that could undo him with women.

The President’s recent ascent in the polls shows how valuable the backing of female voters could be.

By luck more than design, Clinton has found himself this spring on the same side as many women on a variety of controversial issues, ranging from federal budget cutting and gun control to the disputed nomination of Henry W. Foster Jr. to be surgeon general.

For instance, the polls have found it is women who have responded most strongly to the Administration’s arguments that in cutting $1 trillion plus from projected spending, Republican budgets would most hurt society’s aged and defenseless.

And while Clinton’s strong talk against volunteer militias and anti-government violence in the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing has resonated well with men, it has done even better with women, the polls show.

These factors lifted Clinton’s job approval rating into the mid-50s range recently, its highest point this year.

“When it comes to worrying about the social welfare net, and putting the whammy on the good old boys out at weekend target practice, there’s no question where the vote comes from,” said Kevin Phillips, the conservative political analyst. The White House, he said, “has every reason to take pains with” courting support from women.

Female voters even tend to respond more favorably than men to Clinton’s foreign policy record, seeing prudent flexibility in diplomatic moves that many men read as weakness. Also, women aren’t as likely to be alienated by Clinton’s Vietnam War draft history, pollsters say.

In the view of some analysts, the White House has been helped greatly this year by the ham-handedness of the House Republican leadership, which tilted noticeably in the direction of male sensibilities.

In its marketing of plans to reduce growth in school lunch spending, and in its expressions of sympathy for anti-government militias, the Republican leadership “came up with a strategy tailor-made to help the White House,” said Phillips. “They couldn’t have helped the White House more if they had tried to make one up.”

For the moment, Clinton seems to have the lead with women on the apparent GOP front-runner, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole of Kansas. Some polls show Clinton with an edge of nearly 15 points over the Kansan among female voters.

Yet the White House quest for women’s support isn’t likely to remain this easy.

In the midterm election, Clinton and the Democrats simply failed to stir women enough to get them to the polls in sufficient numbers. Women made up only 51% of the turnout, versus 54% in 1992, contributing to the electoral blowout that turned control of Congress to the GOP.

Liberal women’s groups have pointed to this lack of enthusiasm as evidence that Clinton can’t stray in his commitment to their issues, which include affirmative action.

Yet Clinton needs to extend his appeal far beyond the liberal faithful if he is to accumulate the big margin he will need among women to offset his expected weakness among men.

White House aides acknowledge that, for this reason, the key battleground will be in the suburbs, with their rich concentrations of moderate female voters.

Another risk for Clinton is in the character issue, which is generally trickier with women than policy questions.

Women, more than men, give Clinton high marks for empathy for average Americans. But they tend to be more disturbed by talk that Clinton has been unfaithful in his marriage.

The issue could still re-emerge in some form before the election. A federal appeals court is now considering whether the sexual-harassment lawsuit brought against Clinton by Paula Corbin Jones can begin a pretrial discovery, or fact-finding, phase within months.

Democratic analysts question how much punch this issue still may have. But few professionals deny that Clinton is threatened by any development that could narrow the big edge he needs among women.

“If there’s not a substantial gender gap, this President’s in serious trouble,” said Tony Podesta, a political analyst and consultant with ties to Democratic groups.

Times staff writer John M. Broder contributed to this story.