The Guardian has women going for a female first (3)
I believe the answer is:
eve
'a female first' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both related to time as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps you can see an association between them that I can't see?
'the guardian has women going' is the wordplay.
'the guardian has' becomes 'weve' ('we have', referring to the setter's newspaper).
'women' becomes 'w' (standard abbreviation).
'going' suggests deleting specific letters.
'weve' with 'w' taken out is 'EVE'.
'for' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for eve that I've seen before include "See 27" , "The night before a festival" , "She reportedly lived first" , "'All About - - ' (Bette Davis film)" , "Adam & - -" .)