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Byline: KK Ottesen U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, 81, is a Democrat from California and chair of the House Financial Services Committee. A past chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, Waters [...]

CORRECTION APPENDED ATHENS IN her tiny office here, Hara Kefalidou rolled her eyes remembering the days just after her letter was first published in the conservative daily Kathimerini. In that [...]

With Mother's Day this Sunday, The Hill continues to feature the women in Congress who find time in their busy schedules to make dinner for their children and tuck them [...]

New shadow home secretary Ann Widdecombe admits that she has no idea why she started 1997 as Britain's favourite monster and ended it as the nation's sweetheart. She nevertheless recognises that her popularity may not last for ever. Widdecombe insists that she is not lonely, explaining that she loves her own company. She declares that her sexuality is totally irrelevant to her while being adamant that she is not gay. Widdecombe explains that although she would rather have had had a family than not have one, she does not feel that there is a chunk missing because she has not had children.

Actress turned Labour Member of Parliament Glenda Jackson emphatically denies reports in the Sunday Times in May 1999 that she is so frustrated by the sham of politics that she plans to stand down at the next election. Jackson, a junior transport minister, describes herself as a socialist of the third way. She freely admits to being anti-social in the sense that she dislikes parties and small talk but rejects allegations that she is sour and humourless. Jackson feels that she smiles quite a bit but explains that she prioritises work and has never aspired to happiness.

Former actress Glenda Jackson explains that she joined the Labour Party when Margaret Thatcher became prime minister because she found the way Thatcherism turned vices into virtues so offensive. She comments that she would have done anything legal to get Thatcher out. Jackson maintains that being elected Member of Parliament for Hampstead and Highgate in 1992 gave her a greater sense of personal achievement than winning an Oscar. She comments that she has achieved her three political ambitions, being re-selected for her constituency, being re-elected and seeing Tony Blair become prime minister.

The 13 women Conservative Members of Parliament (MPs) in the new House of Commons take comfort from knowing that, unlike many of their 107 Labour counterparts, they were not elected from women-only shortlists. Caroline Spelman, newly-elected MP for Meriden, argues that the women in the 1997 intake of Conservative MPs are of a high calibre because they were elected in difficult circumstances. Former education secretary Gillian Shephard admits that it would be better if the large number of women MPs in the Commons included more Conservatives but she remains firmly opposed to positive discrimination.

UK Member of Parliament Emma Nicholson explains that the savage and personal attacks that have followed the publication of excerpts from her memoirs in the Daily Mirror in Sep. 1996, are nothing new. She points out that it is the Conservatives' style to attack her motives in a non-political and vacuous way. She recognises that she has taken risks in publishing her memoirs but explains that she felt that she had to speak out about the Government's incredible incompetence. Nicholson adds that her decision to leave the Conservative Party to join the Liberal Democrats felt right.

Glenda Jackson reveals that she did not find it difficult to give up her career as one of the leading actresses of her generation to go into politics because the longer she continued to act, the more frightening it became. She sees no reason why her election as Member of Parliament for Hampstead and Highgate at the last general election should have been seen as an asset to the Labour Party, and explains that once elected, she simply tried to learn. Jackson is delighted by her promotion to Tony Blair's frontbench team as Labour's Transport spokesman but insists that she has no Cabinet ambitions.

UK Conservative Member of Parliament Teresa Gorman is determined to fight her solicitors, Gouldens, who have threatened her and her husband with bankruptcy proceedings over an unpaid legal bill of more than 60,000 pounds sterling. Gorman maintains that Gouldens is well aware that she and her husband are not paying the bill because they have disputed it, not because they do not have the money. She claims to be concerned about causing political embarrassment to the Government, but she admits to being a maverick and speaking up about what she believes in.

Conservative Member of Parliament Edwina Currie admits that while she works just as hard as a backbencher and highly successful writer as she did when she was a cabinet minister, she earns considerably more money and is able to set her own agenda. Currie believes that humour and sex are vital ingredients in a political novel but points out that her latest political bonkbuster, 'A Woman's Place,' is intended to have a serious theme. She explains that 'A Woman's Place,' to be published on Jan. 25, 1996, aims to expose the dreadful treatment of women in parliament.

Labour Member of Parliament for Cynon Valley, Wales, Ann Clwyd, is proud of her ability to look calm on the outside when she is feeling far from calm on the inside. She manages to keep smiling despite having been sacked as frontbench spokeswoman on foreign affairs on Apr. 3, 1995, following an unauthorised trip to Turkey and Iraq that led her to miss key votes. She maintains that Labour Party leader Tony Blair had to dismiss her to prove that he can be tough. However she is convinced that she is the victim of whips who have been plotting to discredit her for many years.

Labour Member of Parliament Joan Ruddock does not think that her career in the House of Commons has been hampered by having been the chair of CND (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament). However she admits to having been deeply disappointed when she lost her job as minister for women and to being at a loss as to what to do with herself in the first few months after her return to the backbenches. Ruddock has recently launched a campaign 'Women Say No to GMOs', which aims to obtain the signatures of 50,000 women on a petition calling for freedom from genetically modified foods.

UK Employment and Equal Opportunities Minister Margaret Hodge describes her new post, which she was given in the summer 1998 government reshuffle, as a challenging brief that offers opportunity for innovation. She cites her deep commitment to fairness and social justice and comments that disability discrimination legislation in the UK has a long way to go. Hodge recognises that her predecessor, Alan Howarth, did an excellent job in creating a good framework from which to move forward. However she stresses the importance of obtaining business consent when developing civil rights for disabled people.

Conservative Member of Parliament Theresa May, a new recruit to party leader William Hague's revamped front bench education team, admits that mistakes were made under past Conservative education ministers. May, a former chair of the London, England, borough of Merton's education committee, recognises that the original national curriculum was too prescriptive. She nevertheless maintains that the national curriculum was giving equal opportunities to children. May, who is married but has no children, regards gender as irrelevant and maintains that there are no such things as women's issues.