Former Senator Graham Richardson, a leader of the party's right faction, once stated that Zakharov "works hard on social issues in the chamber, but hides her light under a bushel far too successfully".
She studied psychology as part of an arts degree at Melbourne University, where she joined the local branch of the Communist Party of Australia, something which she later discovered had brought her to the attention of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation.
As a young woman, she juggled her family commitments with a number of jobs, working as a market research interviewer, clerk, waitress, mail officer, psychiatric nurse, and pathology assistant.
Two years later, Zakharov and Senator Rosemary Crowley opposed legislation against scientific experimentation on human embryos that had been proposed by conservative independent Brian Harradine.
Zakharov also remained involved in her local community; she used her political connections to help save her historic neighbourhood in Port Melbourne from demolition, and at one point painted "NOT FOR SALE" on her roof in order to promote the message.
In 1988, Zakharov was the only 1st world politician invited to witness the first destruction of nuclear weapons at a ceremony in the Soviet Union after the signing of a disarmament agreement.
Four years later, she joined a crossbench group (along with Labor's Chris Schacht, Bruce Childs and Margaret Reynolds and the Liberal Party's Baden Teague) to become involved in the international campaign to free jailed Israeli scientist Mordechai Vanunu.
She was not surprised to discover that ASIO had shown interest in her membership of the Communist Party while at university; what she was not prepared for was a detailed investigation the organisation had made in 1963, after becoming concerned that John Zakharov was a bigamist.
However, she retained her seat, fending off challenges from Democrat-turned-independent Janet Powell and Nuclear Disarmament Party-turned-Democrat Robert Wood in the general election.
In November 1993, Zakharov publicly revealed that she had been a victim of domestic violence at the hands of her deceased husband for ten years prior to their separation.
Zakharov was struck by a car on the afternoon of 12 February 1995, while crossing St Kilda Road after leaving the Midsumma gay and lesbian festival.