In favour of female academic (4)
I believe the answer is:
prof
'academic' is the definition.
'in favour of female' is the wordplay.
'in favour of' becomes 'pro' (I've seen this before).
'female' becomes 'f' (abbreviation).
'pro'+'f'='PROF'
(Other definitions for prof that I've seen before include "High-ranking university academic (abbr)" , "Top academic (informal)" , "head of dept at uni" , "Academic briefly" , "Senior academic (colloq.)" .)