Jane Goodall started her work in Tanzania’s Gombe National Park and pioneered the study of chimpanzees.
The University of Guelph hosted a conversation with Goodall on Wednesday in recognition of International Women’s Day and women’s history month.
“I never thought of being a scientist because women just weren’t at the time,” said Goodall.
Nobody had ever studied chimpanzees in the wild at the time Goodall started in 1960. Her mentor Louis Leakey suggested she got a degree at Cambridge University to be taken seriously as a woman in the field.
Goodall said she worried the chimpanzees wouldn’t let her in and would continue to fear her.
“The window was closing, and then, dear David Greybeard, I saw him using grass stems to fish termites from their nest, getting leafy twigs and carefully stripping the leaves to make a tool,” she said.
“At the time it was thought humans and only humans used and made tools so that’s why, he said that we would have to redefine tool or redefine exceptions as humans.”
Goodall said what chimps have learned from us is we’re dangerous creatures cutting down their forests and shooting them and trafficking them around the world.
There are still barriers for women in some research fields, like women in STEM.
“I can say I’ve now lived on this earth for nearly 88 years, and the change in acceptance of women has been huge. Yes, we have further to go, much further,” said Goodall.
“My advice to young women who want to move into basically male-dominated fields is first of all you've got to really want to do this and don't try and do it just because you feel women ought to be able to do it. Now you've got to have a passion, you've got to really really want to do it.”
The Jane Goodall Institute in Canada opened its first Roots and Shoots office at the University of Guelph Arboretum Centre. The institute seeks to conserve the world through connecting people, animals and the environment.
“We can't live on Mars and you've seen photos of planet Earth from space. Little tiny green and blue globe surrounded by the darkness of infinite space that saw home and we're destroying it,” said Goodall.
“And we've got a window of time to save life on earth as we know it, including our own species.”
Alex Johnson, interim CEO at the Jane Goodall Institute said women are often around the globe disproportionately affected by climate change, but they are also uniquely positioned to implement solutions.
