A failure as a stateswoman? (4)
I believe the answer is:
miss
'a failure' is the definition.
(I know that miss is a type of failure)
I can't explain the rest of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for miss that I've seen before include "Fail to catch" , "Damsel" , "Teacher" , "Fail to perceive" , "Shoot over" .)