Women in pews, perhaps trying to maintain body temperature (8)
I believe the answer is:
sweating
'trying to maintain body temperature' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this definition defines the answer.
'women in pews' is the wordplay.
'women' becomes 'w' (standard abbreviation).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'pews' becomes 'seating' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'w' inserted into 'seating' is 'SWEATING'.
'perhaps' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for sweating that I've seen before include "Anxious" , "Perspiring" , "Like a pig maybe" .)