She joined the Aam Aadmi Party in 2014 and contested the 2014 parliament elections from Thrissur Lok Sabha constituency.

Sarah Joseph was born into a conservative Christian family[1] at Kuriachira in Thrissur city in 1946 to Louis and Kochumariam.

[2] She has since retired from government service and lives at Mulamkunnathukavu in Thrissur district.Her daughter Sangeetha Sreenivasan is also a writer.

[3] With her group, she led protests over several decades in response to a wide range of crimes against women, including rape, dowry deaths, trafficking, and sexual slavery.

[3][18] A collection of her short stories translated into English, The Masculine of ‘Virgin’ was released in 2012, including her story Papathara, from the collection that led K. Satchidanandan to create the word "Pennezhuthu," which was defined by The Hindu as "writing seen as a feminist concept, in which the author uses female constructions of identity.

[20] On 10 October 2015, Joseph joined a protest by writers when she returned her 2003 Sahitya Akademi Award, stating, "There is a growing fear and lack of freedom under the present government", and criticising silence by the Sahitya Akademi in response murders of writers and mob violence.