Supporting female academic (4)
I believe the answer is:
prof
'academic' is the definition.
(short for professor)
'supporting female' is the wordplay.
'supporting' becomes 'pro' (being pro something is supporting it).
'female' becomes 'f' (common abbreviation).
'pro'+'f'='PROF'
(Other definitions for prof that I've seen before include "One holding chair" , "teacher" , "head of dept at uni" , "Top academic (informal)" , "High-ranking university academic (abbr)" .)