Way with hardship even so (5)
I believe the answer is:
still
'even so' is the definition.
(I know that even so can be written as still)
'way with hardship' is the wordplay.
'way' becomes 'st' (abbreviation for street).
'with' says to put letters next to each other.
'hardship' becomes 'ill' (ill is a kind of hardship).
'st'+'ill'='STILL'
(Other definitions for still that I've seen before include "not like champagne" , "source of spirits" , "Static photograph" , "... [STRONG LIQUOR] produced by this" , "Yet - hushed" .)