Jane Goodall: The Woman Who Changed How We Understand Humanity
Jane Goodall’s simple yet profound statement—”What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make”—encapsulates a philosophy that has guided her groundbreaking life’s work for nearly seven decades. She likely spoke these words during one of her countless lectures, interviews, or appearances before young audiences. Goodall has always felt most at home in these contexts. Whether she spoke to schoolchildren, university students, or global audiences, these words reflect accumulated insights of lived experience. They are not mere abstract wisdom.
A woman who has literally changed the world expressed these words. She did so through the power of individual action and moral conviction. The quote resonates with particular force because it refuses passive acceptance of fate or circumstance. Instead, it places responsibility squarely on the shoulders of each person. It acknowledges both our power and our obligation to wield it thoughtfully.
Understanding the Quote’s Historical Origins
Born as Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall in 1934 in London, Jane Goodall grew up during World War II. She came from a middle-class English family. From her earliest childhood, she possessed an almost mystical affinity for animals. Her father’s tales of African adventures partly inspired this. Her own vivid imagination contributed as well.
While other girls played with dolls, young Jane constructed elaborate dreams. She wanted to live in Africa and study wild animals. What set her apart was not merely this childhood fancy. She possessed an absolute refusal to let it remain a fantasy. At that time, opportunities for women in science were severely limited. African field research was considered especially unsuitable for women.
Yet Goodall developed an unshakeable resolve to make her dream tangible. She worked various jobs—as a secretary, a model, a film extra, and a waitress. These jobs allowed her to save money for passage to Kenya. She demonstrated early determination. This same determination would later define her scientific contributions.
The trajectory that led to Goodall’s revolutionary research began in 1957. She traveled to Kenya and met renowned paleontologist and anthropologist Louis Leakey. Leakey conducted an informal interview while she worked as his secretary. He asked her seemingly random questions. These questions assessed her patience, observation skills, and dedication. This was not happenstance. Leakey had strategically hired her for this very reason.
What you do makes a difference fundamentally
He believed women possessed the patience and emotional intelligence necessary for long-term field research. He saw in Goodall the ideal candidate. In 1960, with Leakey’s encouragement and support, the twenty-six-year-old Goodall arrived in Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania. She began her study of wild chimpanzees. Originally, she intended to stay for six months. Instead, she remained there for more than three decades. She fundamentally transformed our understanding of primates and, by extension, ourselves.
Goodall’s methodology was unconventional for its time. She abandoned the prevailing scientific distance between observer and observed. Rather than hiding behind blinds or maintaining cold objectivity, she sat among the chimpanzees. She observed them closely and gave them individual names. She assigned them numbers instead of traditional identifiers.
She documented tool use, witnessed acts of apparent kindness and cruelty, and observed what appeared to be grief and joy. Most controversially, she suggested that chimpanzees possessed personalities, emotions, and moral capacities. The scientific establishment had previously thought these traits exclusive to humans. This approach scandalized many of her peers in the early days. Respected scientists viewed her work as too subjective and too anecdotal. They criticized its lack of rigor.
They failed to recognize an important truth. Goodall had perceived what others had missed. Rigorous science need not strip away the fullness of our subjects’ experience. Genuine understanding requires presence and empathy alongside careful documentation.
Deciding what kind of difference matters
A lesser-known aspect of Goodall’s life is her near-fatal encounter with polio at age nine. While she recovered fully, this experience left a deep impression on her. It created an early awareness of life’s fragility and preciousness. Few people realize that Goodall’s first marriage to wildlife photographer Hugo van Lawick was partly strategic. She believed, correctly, that Western media would find a romantic narrative more compelling. They would therefore provide greater coverage and funding for her research.
Her son, Grub, was born in 1967. He spent his early childhood in the field at Gombe. He may be the only human raised alongside wild chimpanzees. He has described this experience as deeply formative. Another remarkable fact is that Goodall has been a vegetarian since her teenage years. She learned about slaughterhouses as a teenager and made this dietary choice. This decision predates by decades the modern environmental and ethical vegetarian movement.
The cultural impact of Goodall’s work cannot be overstated. Her documentation of chimpanzee behavior helped establish primatology as a legitimate scientific discipline. It opened doors for countless researchers, particularly women. Women had previously found the sciences relatively closed to them. Her books, documentaries, and lectures brought primatology to mainstream consciousness. Individual chimpanzees like David Greybeard and Flint became household names.
More importantly, her work fundamentally challenged humanity’s conception of its own uniqueness. She demonstrated that chimpanzees use tools and possess distinct personalities. They engage in complex social hierarchies and even warfare. Goodall forced an uncomfortable reckoning upon society. If we share so much with other species, what does that say about our moral obligations toward them? Her research provided the evidence for this essential question.