In the company of women, it's hard (4)
I believe the answer is:
with
'in the company of' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'women it's hard' is the wordplay.
'women' becomes 'w'.
'it's' becomes 'it' (I've seen this in other clues).
'hard' becomes 'h'.
'w'+'it'+'h'='WITH'
(Other definitions for with that I've seen before include "In spite of" , "Accompanied by" , "Among" , "Possessing" , "Accompanying" .)