Zypries is a lawyer and became State Secretary in 1997 after a career as an administrative lawyer, from October 1998 in the Federal Ministry of the Interior. From 2002-2009 she was Minister of Justice, from 2013 Parliamentary State Secretary and from January 2017 Minister in the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy. Since April 2018 she has been working as a freelancer and is particularly committed to women in business and start-ups.