In essence, cash for a woman (7)
I believe the answer is:
summary
'in essence' is the definition.
'summary' can be an answer for 'essence' (thesaurus). I am not certain of the 'in' bit.
'cash for a woman' is the wordplay.
'cash for' becomes 'sum' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'a woman' becomes 'Mary' (woman's name).
'sum'+'mary'='SUMMARY'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for summary that I've seen before include "Arbitrary" , "Synopsis, outline" , "Abstract, short version" , "Abridgment" , "Immediate" .)