She stood for public office the following year at the age of 21, when she was selected as the Democrat candidate for the House of Representatives seat of Phillip at the 1983 election, polling 2.8% of the vote.
[2][13] Sowada was assigned the role of spokesperson on industrial relations, and she controversially backed the Hawke government's move to enshrine the right to strike in legislation.
[10] In 1992, Sowada helped to set up a mentoring program for the intellectually disabled in Sydney, and was assigned the services of then student politician Stott Despoja as a staffer.
She blamed party leader Coulter for the swing against the Democrats, which saw her lose her seat and called for him to be replaced by Cheryl Kernot.
[14] In 1997, Sowada made a brief return to political life when she was nominated to become an Australian Republican Movement delegate to the 1998 Constitutional Convention on whether Australia should become a republic.
[16] Sowada was undertaking a postgraduate degree at the University of Sydney when she was appointed to the Senate, and spent the 1991-92 parliamentary recess in an archaeological dig in Jordan.
[17] Sowada undertakes archeological fieldwork and research in Egypt and Jordan and has published in scholarly books, academic journals and popular magazines.
[19] She is a researcher in Egyptian archaeology with Macquarie University and is a specialist in the foreign relations of Egypt and the Near East during the Bronze Age.
[citation needed] She also acted as a lobbyist for Capitol Research, a small corporate communications company run by her and her husband.