Goedmakers attended grammar school at the Fons Vitae Lyceum and studied biology at the University of Amsterdam and also for a year at the Claude Bernard University Lyon 1.
She obtained her PhD from the University of Amsterdam in 1981 for aquatic ecology research.
There, Goedmakers clashed with her fellow party member, Queen's Commissioner Roel de Wit, when she took her baby on her lap during a meeting.
[1] After this she worked for the Ministry of Welfare, Health and Culture and for the consultancy firm DHV.
In 2005 she lost an internal election for the party chairmanship of the PvdA of Michiel van Hulten.