 Although not politically active during the Communist period, near its end, in the mid-1980s, she joined the League of Polish Women then, in 1991, became active in Ruch Demokratyczno-Społeczny [Democratic-Popular Movement] and, in the election of 1993, was elected to the Sejm as a member of the Labor Union party.A dedicated feminist, she remained a member of , , and was elected for the fourth time in October 2007, running on the platform of the new Left and Democrats party.Izabela Jaruga-Nowacka and her husband, mathematician Jerzy Nowacki, rector of the Warsaw-based Polish-Japanese Institute of Information Technology, have two daughters, Barbara and Katarzyna.