Fellow holding party has upset an iconic female (7)
I believe the answer is:
madonna
'iconic female' is the definition.
(as in the Virgin Mary)
'fellow holding party has upset an' is the wordplay.
'fellow' becomes 'don' (both can mean an academic).
'holding' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'party has upset' becomes 'man' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'an' becomes 'a'.
'don' going into 'man' is 'madonn'.
'madonn'+'a'='MADONNA'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for madonna that I've seen before include "Virgin Mary - or American showbiz queen" , "Religious work" , "pop star" , "Virgin Mary; singer" , "Mother figure" .)