Jill Duggan’s road to becoming the Executive Director of Environmental Defense Fund Europe has been anything but linear. Academia, business, non-profit, government – you name it, she’s done it.

As we at Environmental Defense Fund Europe celebrate International Women's Day, we asked Jill to reflect on her own professional life. She shares four realizations that she hopes will help women move further, faster.

“I became interested in politics and economics pretty early on – when many of my friends thought politics was boring and my interest was bizarre.

My interest in the environment grew during my twenties, and I made a conscious decision when my daughter was little to change my career path to focus on in it.”

That path was one she had to figure out on her own with very few examples to follow.  “There was a real lack of woman mentors in my early career,” Jill says. “Men in leadership positions would be encouraging and helpful (particularly when starting out) but they really weren’t mentors in the way that you wanted.”  

“Sexism was still rife – even from those you hoped would support you most.”

Jill recalls her mother advising her to become a secretary and work her way up – and when she was expecting her daughter her father commented “at last you have a proper job”.   They did change their views over time.  “My mother was very supportive when I went back to college to study Environment and then Environmental Economics.  And I know my father was proud as my later career in government developed.”

While Jill credits her early political leanings to teenage naïveté, she says they made her ready to challenge the status quo. “I had this sense of - why should we just put up with things and why shouldn’t we change things?”

From one career move to the next she has carried with her a common understanding of what it takes to make policy change happen – the behind-the-scenes action needed for people to make better decisions when it came to the environment.

Jill says she has always been “focused on the connection between economic thinking behind policymaking and joining the dots to make a better world.” 

But even when she found herself making these connections faster than others, she was often afraid to speak up and sees this reluctance as still pervasive among women in a professional environment.

“I used to be scared of speaking in meetings – of drawing attention to myself. And when I did speak up I was often disconcerted by the lack of any response! I had to learn that just because I didn’t receive any comments at the time, it didn’t mean what I said didn’t have value and didn’t get notice. I have learned that only when I put my head above the parapet and spoken what others weren’t thinking or were afraid to voice, can I really make change happen. “ 

“Speaking up can be daunting.”  Jill says. “But once you get through that discomfort, a world of opportunity opens up – and nobody knows what’s in your head unless you tell them.”

Jill’s early decision-making about her education and early career was informed by a mixture of pragmatism and other people’s systemic biases. “Some relatives assumed I wasn’t academic because I didn’t go to university at the traditional time."

Money matters and prioritizing short- over long-term gain also played an oversized role in her early career, often keeping her from the things she really wanted to do

“I’ve worked in the private sector, government and in the NGO world. I’ve studied fine art, history, environmental policy, economics. I’ve done a lot, and that’s because I’ve learned that if I really want to do something, it’s never too late to go and do it.”

Finally, Jill points to a need for women to support each other – to help them find their way and make good choices. “The networks are not there, the challenges women face are different to those that their male counterparts experience, so support them!”





Hear more about Jill's unique career journey in this episode of the Join the Dots Podcast.