Force that is required by female, say, gripping branch (11)
I believe the answer is:
gendarmerie
'force' is the definition.
(I know that gendarmerie is a type of police)
'that is required by female say gripping branch' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'branch' could be 'arm' (synonyms) and 'arm' is found within the answer.
'that is' could be 'ie' (short for Latin 'id est', 'that is') and 'ie' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'gender' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for gendarmerie that I've seen before include "French policing force" , "foreign force" , "Police force" , "Nick" , "French paramilitary police" .)