Source of funding and power secured by boys and men (7)
I believe the answer is:
sponsor
'source of funding' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both people as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps you can see an association between them that I can't see?
'power secured by boys and men' is the wordplay.
'power' becomes 'p' (symbol in physics).
'secured by' is an insertion indicator (inserted letters are held or secured).
'boys' becomes 'sons' ('son' can be a synonym of 'boy').
'and' says to put letters next to each other.
'men' becomes 'OR' (military abbreviation for other ranks).
'p' going inside 'sons' is 'spons'.
'spons'+'or'='SPONSOR'
'and' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for sponsor that I've seen before include "Godparent; financial supporter" , "One giving money in support of an event" , "Event funder; godparent" , "Back financially" , "One paying to support" .)