Sides with female experts (5)
I believe the answer is:
faces
'sides' is the definition.
(face is a kind of side)
'with female experts' is the wordplay.
'with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'female' becomes 'f' (common abbreviation).
'experts' becomes 'aces' (ace is a kind of expert).
'f' put next to 'aces' is 'FACES'.
(Other definitions for faces that I've seen before include "Meets defiantly - moves head accordingly" , "Confronts" , "With 1a [NEW], TV talent show" , "Mugs" .)