Agents with female performers (7)
I believe the answer is:
factors
'agents' is the definition.
(I know this)
'with female performers' is the wordplay.
'with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'female' becomes 'f' (abbreviation).
'performers' becomes 'actors' (actor is a kind of performer).
'f'+'actors' is 'FACTORS'.
(Other definitions for factors that I've seen before include "Agents" , "Circumstances that contribute to a result" .)