A student of the philosopher Tadeusz Kotarbiński, she originally in 1925 received a doctorate in philosophy at the University of Warsaw with a thesis on Bertrand Russell.

She was banned from teaching between 1952 and 1956, while sociology was removed from Polish universities as a "bourgeois" discipline.

In 1964 she was one of the signatories of the so-called Letter of 34 to Prime Minister Józef Cyrankiewicz regarding freedom of culture.

In 1972 the Communist authorities awarded Ossowska a first-degree Polish National Award (Polska Nagroda Państwowa I stopnia), the highest Polish state accolade.

Ossowska was married to sociologist Stanisław Ossowski, with whom she closely cooperated in research and teaching.