The woman, redhead, retaining mother's beauty (7)
I believe the answer is:
smasher
'beauty' is the definition.
('smasher' can be a synonym of 'beauty')
'the woman redhead retaining mother's' is the wordplay.
'the woman' becomes 'she' (I've seen this before**).
'redhead' becomes 'r' (the head/first letter of 'red').
'retaining' indicates putting letters inside.
'mother's' becomes 'mas' (ma is a kind of mother).
'she'+'r'='sher'
'sher' placed around 'mas' is 'SMASHER'.
(Other definitions for smasher that I've seen before include "Beauty" , "who is attractive to men?" , "responsible for break-up?" , "Pretty woman" , "dish" .)