Gov. Michael S. Dukakis held a 15-point lead over Vice President Bush in an NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll released yesterday, largely on the strength of overwhelming support for Mr. Dukakis among women.

Mr. Dukakis was supported by 49 percent of the registered voters in the poll, as against 34 percent for Mr. Bush, NBC News reported. Among men the split was 46 percent to 40 percent for Mr. Dukakis, but among women his margin was 52 percent to 28 percent.

The national survey of 2,014 adults was conducted June 9-12. Its result was similar to that of a Gallup poll, conducted June 10-12, that found a 14-point Dukakis lead. Two other polls early in June put the Massachusetts Governor's lead in single digits; others in May had Mr. Dukakis's lead as great as 16 points.

The margin of sampling error in the telephone survey was three percentage points.

The ''gender gap'' facing Mr. Bush also appeared in an ABC News-Washington Post poll last month, which suggested he trailed Mr. Dukakis narrowly among men but by a 2-to-1 margin among women. In another measure, the NBC-Journal poll yesterday found that only 38 percent of women said that Mr. Bush cares about people like them.