First woman to enter the French bank (5)
I believe the answer is:
levee
'bank' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'first woman to enter the french' is the wordplay.
'first woman' becomes 'eve' (first woman in the bible).
'to enter' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'the french' becomes 'le' ().
'eve' inserted within 'le' is 'LEVEE'.
(Other definitions for levee that I've seen before include "River bank reinforcement, particularly in the US" , "Riverside embankment" , "Embankment on the Mississippi" , "Flood embankment" , "Early morning reception by a monarch" .)