[3] Tadesse is an activist and sociologist who has undertaken significant research on democracy, gender and women's land rights in Africa.
[9] In 1977, she was a founding member of the Association of African Women for Research and Development, an organization that she became the first executive director of.
[4][10] Tadesse has worked with several organizations involved with the United Nations, including being a member of the executive committee of the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, as well as being a member of the Committee for Development Policy from 2016-2018.
[12] In 1976 she wrote a book, The Condition of Women in Ethiopia, that is held in the Rome headquarters of the FAO, but has not been publicly published.
[16] Her essay "Africa: A New Look From the Inside" was published in The UNESCO Courier: A Window Open on the World, XXXIII, 7 in 1980.