Women’s History Month: On Jane Goodall + a Playlist
Words by: Maggie Laubscher | Music by: Abby Yemm
Image credit: National Geographic Creative/ Hugo van Lawick via WBUR
Who are your north stars? People you look up to and whose actions and values you use as a guide. It’s the ‘What Would X Do’ mentality. Sometimes the X might be RBG or Rosie the Riveter or Cher. Other times it’s God. And oftentimes it’s Michelle Obama. We all have different north stars throughout our lives. And Dr. Jane Goodall is one north star we return to time and again.
The common idea of Jane Goodall (1934 -- present) is that she is the nice lady who befriended chimpanzees. Which is very much a true statement, though it only scratches the surface of who Jane is and what she has accomplished in her lifetime.
Jane has many titles - primatologist, anthropologist, the world's leading expert on chimpanzees, global nonprofit founder, and UN Messenger of Peace. She is a social activist, speaking up for primates in captivity and in the wild. She is an icon in the field of science. She is also controversial.
As part of our ongoing coverage of Women’s History Month, here are five realities about Jane Goodall we’ve learned through the years:
1) Jane started as a secretary, not a scientist
Image Credit: Bettmann/CORBIS via Khan Academy
When Jane was about 23, she started work as a secretary for her eventual mentor, Louis Leakey. Three years later, Leakey sent her to Tanzania where she camped out in a national park to watch chimps live their lives. Jane had no formal scientific training. She came to the study as an outsider, a commoner. And yet, her observations of the chimps, such as noticing them building and using tools, offered groundbreaking insight into what it means to be human vs. animal.
2) Jane befriends enemies on the regular (including an oil tycoon)
Image Credit: G Adventures
Jane has repeatedly -- and peacefully -- reaches across enemy lines. She collaborated with US Secretary of State James Baker (a republican who worked for Presidents Reagan and H. W. Bush) and ConocoPhillips oil to build a chimpanzee sanctuary. In fact, when she told Baker of her plans to tour chimpanzee habitats in Africa, the devout hunter asked every country on her itinerary to help her. She once sat down with The National Institutes of Health (NIH), who carried out years of medical testing on chimps, to see their perspective. Which led to NIH phasing out medical testing on chimps. In her words, ‘If you don’t talk to people, how can you expect them to change?’
3) Jane is enjoying a resurgence
Image Credit: Society6 Art Print by Becky Hammer Carpenter
Two recent documentaries explore her life and are companion films, both by National Geographic. Jane is the first and is about her life’s work, which debuted in 2017. The film is beautifully shot, with hours of archival footage mixed in with present-day interviews. And then there is Jane Goodall: The Hope. This film came out in 2020 to coincide with the 60th anniversary of Jane’s arrival to the Gombe chimpanzee kingdom.
4) Many scientists look down on Jane
Image Credit: CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images via Teen Vogue
Naming her research subjects -- Flo, Fifi, Mike, and so on -- was controversial and caused a scandal in the scientific community. It adds bias to the research, it chips away at objectivity, and scientists are strongly discouraged from doing so. But, it’s also true that Jane’s emphasis on chimps as individuals made people care about them and in turn, environmental preservation.
5) Stevie Nicks wrote a song about Jane
Image credit: Fin Costello/Redferns/Getty Images via NPR.org
Can. You. Imagine. Stevie wrote a song specifically for Jane, originally called ‘Jane’s Song’ and then shortened to ‘Jane.’ The song was created for a tribute event in the early 1990s and was also included on Stevie’s album, Street Angel.
A Fresh Abby Yemm playlist for you…
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