Female in a volunteer force is a goddess (6)
I believe the answer is:
athena
'goddess' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'female in a volunteer force' is the wordplay.
'female' becomes 'hen' (hen is a kind of female).
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'volunteer force' becomes 'ta' (I've seen this in other clues).
'a'+'ta'='ata'
'hen' inserted within 'ata' is 'ATHENA'.
'is a' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for athena that I've seen before include "One-time goddess" , "Greek goddess of a capital city" , "wise but fierce goddess" , "Greek goddess of wisdom etc." .)