Worker joins women's institute for power and that's a disadvantage (8)
I believe the answer is:
handicap
'that's a disadvantage' is the definition.
(handicap is a kind of disadvantage)
'worker joins women's institute for power' is the wordplay.
'worker' becomes 'hand' (hand is a kind of worker).
'joins' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'women's institute' becomes 'ica' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'for' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'power' becomes 'p'.
'hand'+'ica'+'p'='HANDICAP'
'and' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for handicap that I've seen before include "Advantage given to equalise chances of winning" , "Hold back" , "Impairment" , "Disadvantage to offset an advantage to equalise chances of winning" , "Impede" .)