[4] During the 1960s, she spent time tutoring classics in London, and observed the disparity of opportunity created by pervasive class discrimination.

She credits this experience, and reading William Temple's book Christianity and Social Order, as creating her "desire to be an agent of change".

[4] Her move from classics to law at age 32 was motivated by the practicalities of having small children and her work with Amnesty International, of which she had been a member since 1968.

[5][4] Bedggood has been a visiting fellow at Kellogg College, Oxford, and tutors in international human rights law.

[4] In the 2019 New Year Honours, Bedggood was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to human rights law.