The middle-class woman (4)

I believe the answer is:

thea

'woman' is the definition.

'the middle-class' is the wordplay.
'middle' means to look at the middle letters.
The central letter of 'class' is 'a'.
'the'+'a'='THEA'

(Other definitions for thea that I've seen before include "... Girl" , "Plant" , "evergreen shrubs?" , "Female name meaning 'goddess'" , "Girl's name, tea genus" .)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.

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