A female, articulate and rich (8)
I believe the answer is:
affluent
'rich' is the definition.
('affluent' can be similar in meaning to 'rich')
'a female articulate' is the wordplay.
'a female' becomes 'af' (I've seen this in other clues).
'articulate' becomes 'fluent' ('fluent' can be similar in meaning to 'articulate'**).
'af'+'fluent'='AFFLUENT'
'and' is the link.
(Other definitions for affluent that I've seen before include "Loaded" , "Very well off, quite rich" , "Flute fan may be wealthy" , "comfortable" , "Wealthy, rich" .)