Am soft on the female carrying the basket (6)
I believe the answer is:
hamper
'basket' is the definition.
(eg food hamper)
'am soft on the female carrying' is the wordplay.
'soft' becomes 'p' (musical abbreviation for 'piano').
'on' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'the female' becomes 'her' (I've seen this before).
'carrying' indicates putting letters inside.
'am'+'p'='amp'
'amp' put within 'her' is 'HAMPER'.
'the' is the link.
(Other definitions for hamper that I've seen before include "Impede the food basket" , "Food-basket" , "Picnic box" , "Obstruct with picnic basket" , "Christmas basket" .)