Females with hard ways (4)
I believe the answer is:
hens
'females' is the definition.
(hen is a kind of female)
'with hard ways' is the wordplay.
'with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'hard' becomes 'h' (abbreviation used in pencil classifications).
'ways' becomes 'ens' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'h' next to 'ens' is 'HENS'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for hens that I've seen before include "Female fowl" , "Poultry" , "Birds kept for laying" , "Adult chickens" , "Female chickens" .)