Women dressed in the gear for surviving (10)
I believe the answer is:
weathering
'surviving' is the definition.
'women dressed in the gear' is the wordplay.
'women' becomes 'w'.
'dressed' is an anagram indicator ('dress' can mean 'prepare').
'in'+'the'+'gear'='inthegear'
'inthegear' anagrammed gives 'eathering'.
'w'+'eathering'='WEATHERING'
'for' is the link.
(Other definitions for weathering that I've seen before include "coming through okay" , "Enduring" , "given exposure to elements" .)