Figure a woman takes money, being mercenary (5)
I believe the answer is:
venal
'being mercenary' is the definition.
(both can mean purely concerned with making money)
'figure a woman takes money' is the wordplay.
'figure a woman' becomes 'vena' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'takes' says to put letters next to each other.
'money' becomes 'l' (L can mean 'pounds').
'vena'+'l'='VENAL'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for venal that I've seen before include "motivated by corruption" , "easily bribed" , "Capable of being corrupted" , "Open to bribes" , "Influenced by bribery, corrupt" .)