She was director of the Education Policy Secretariat in 1971, deputy director in 1976 and became social attaché at the Swedish delegation in Brussels and at the Swedish embassies in Brussels, The Hague and Paris in 1975. Hegardt was labour counsellor there in 1977, State Secretary at the Ministry of Trade from 1978 to 1979 and from 1981 to 1982 and was deputy State Secretary for Foreign Affairs at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs 1980-81. Hegardt was then consul general in Los Angeles 1983-89 and ambassador in Dublin from 1989 to 1993.[1] She was then consul general in Hamburg from 1993 to 1997.[2]