Woman in Iowa supporting male offspring (5)
I believe the answer is:
sonia
'woman' is the definition.
'iowa supporting male offspring' is the wordplay.
'iowa' becomes 'ia' (standard US state two-letter abbreviation).
'supporting' means one lot of letters go next to another (in a down clue, some letters go below others).
'male offspring' becomes 'son' (son is a kind of male offspring).
'ia' put after 'son' is 'SONIA'.
'in' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for sonia that I've seen before include "...O'Sullivan, great Irish athlete" , "Noa is really a girl" .)