Yesterday’s “Women for Bloomberg” event was billed as a breakfast, but it was more akin to a pep rally.

The music that boomed through the Millennium Hotel’s Hudson Theatre sounded like a sorority’s mix tape, featuring hits like Tom Jones’s “She’s a Lady,” Whitney Houston’s “I’m Every Woman,” and Shania Twain’s “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!”

Equipped with hot-pink “Women for Bloomberg” signs, hundreds of women, ranging from teens to seniors, screamed and clapped. A speech from a star of “The Sopranos,” Lorraine

Bracco, drew riotous applause and laughter. When Mayor Bloomberg tried to exit the stage and make his way out to his black Ford Excursion, which was waiting on 44th Street to take him to his next event, hundreds of women scrambled to shake his hand, receive one of his traditional two-cheek kisses, or pose with him for a photo and offer congratulations.

Just three and a half years ago, Mr. Bloomberg had a problem with women.

In November 2001, Mr. Bloomberg won only 45% of the female vote, versus Mark Green’s 52%. Now, according to a poll released Tuesday by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, 55% of women say they approve of the job Mr. Bloomberg is doing, and Mr. Bloomberg would win more women’s votes than any of his Democratic rivals – even the Manhattan borough president, C. Virginia Fields, the only woman in the race. The poll found that Ms. Fields would get 38% of the female vote, compared with 49% for Mr. Bloomberg.

Yesterday’s event was so over attended that the campaign was forced to open up the theater’s upper balcony. Still, despite Mr. Bloomberg’s apparent popularity among women, the Bloomberg campaign says it is eager to reach out to women voters and discuss the mayor’s record on issues that are important to them, including domestic violence, emergency contraception, education, security, and jobs.

“The fact is, the mayor has a stellar record on issues of importance to women,” Mr. Bloomberg’s campaign spokesman, Stuart Loeser, said.

While he said a lot of New Yorkers have a sense that the city is heading in the right direction, Mr. Loeser said that as the campaign moves forward, it will highlight some of Mr. Bloomberg’s specific accomplishments that have helped women. Political observers say the presence of Ms. Fields in the mayoral race might be driving the mayor to focus on women’s issues.

“I think that the major reason for courting the women’s vote directly this year is the presence of Virginia Fields as a woman candidate,” a Baruch College professor, David Birdsell, said. “This is one of the identity cards that she’s playing in the election.”

Ms. Fields held a “Women for Fields” breakfast in late May, to which she drew about 500 women; yesterday, more than 1,000 women showed up to cheer for the incumbent.

Pollster Mickey Blum said the support for Ms. Fields is not strong enough to hurt the mayor and there is no evidence that women are defecting to the female candidate. But given the turnout numbers in New York City, she said it’s worthwhile for any politician to reach out to women.

“Women are a majority of the electorate in New York City,” she said. “They’re about 54%, actually.”

Ms. Blum said she doesn’t have any advice for the mayor as he attempts to raise even more support in the months leading up to the election: “Whatever he’s doing, he should just keep doing it, because it’s really working for him on women as it is among men, and apparently, really among virtually every group of voters.”

A list of 1,500 “Women for Bloomberg” distributed at yesterday’s event included Mr. Bloomberg’s daughters, mother, and girlfriend, a range of socialites and millionaires, and education guru Carol Reich, as well as successful female professionals like the editor of Vogue, Anna Wintour.