Zeminová was born in Dolní Chvatliny, then in Austria-Hungary, in 1882, the youngest of twelve children of a farming couple.

[1] She graduated from business school and from the age of 20 until 1918 worked as an accountant and saleswoman in the Prague publishing house I. L. Kober.

Her participation in demonstrations brought her to the attention of the Austrian police, and she spent a short time in jail for 'anti-state activities'.

[1] She was also involved in the trade union movement and had articles published in the Ženské snahy monthly magazine and České slovo daily newspaper.

She spent eleven years in prisons in Prague, Jihlava and Plzeň working as a seamstress, before being pardoned by President Antonín Novotný as part of a large amnesty in 1960.