Bożena Borys-Szopa was born in Lędziny on 11 March 1954. The new Minister for Family, Labour and Social Policy is a lawyer by education; she graduated from the Faculty of Law and Administration at the University of Silesia in Katowice and completed postgraduate studies in business management at the AGH University of Science and Technology in Kraków.

In 1998–2002, she was the Chairman of the Labour Protection Council at the Sejm of the Republic of Poland; as from 2002, she served as its Vice-Chairman. He is a member of the Polish Association of Legislation.

In 1991, she joined the Management Board of the “Solidarity” Silesia-Dąbrowa Basin Region. In 2002, she became the Vice-Chairman and Secretary of the Management Board of the Region. She resigned from this position in 2006, when she was appointed as Chief Labour Inspector. In 1998–2006, she was a member of the National Commission of the Independent Self-Governing Trade Union “Solidarity”.

From 15 March 2006 till 21 August 2008, she served as Chief Labour Inspector. In December 2007, she completed an inspector’s apprenticeship, gaining the qualifications of a labour inspector.

From 1 November 2008, Bożena Borys-Szopa was an adviser to the President of the Republic of Poland for social affairs and contacts with social partners as well as labour law and occupational health & safety. On 21 September 2009, she was appointed as Undersecretary of State at the Chancellery of President Lech Kaczyński. On 5 July 2010, she resigned from her functions. One day later, she was recalled from the position of Undersecretary of State.

In 2011, she became a councillor in the Regional Assembly of the Silesia Province. In 2014, she was appointed as Vice-Chairman of the Regional Assembly of the 5th term.

In the parliamentary elections in 2015, she was elected to the Sejm from the Law and Justice [PiS] list for the Katowice district. In the Sejm, she worked in the State Audit Committee and, as the Chairperson, in the Social Policy and Family Committee.

Bożena Borys-Szopa received the Pro Labore Securo Award, which is granted by the Central Institute of Labour Protection for outstanding achievements in public service for the protection of people at work, and the Halina Krahelska Award of the National Labour Inspectorate for outstanding achievements in the field of labour protection.  She is also the author of numerous publications on employees’ rights and the supervision of working conditions in Poland and EU Member States.