For several years, Stevens held a position on the editorial staff of the "Toledo Bee". By 1893, she was half owner and editor of the "Vanguard", an organ of the People's Party, published in Chicago in the interests of economic and industrial reforms through political action. She was appointed to the Women's Auxiliary Committee of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition Labor Congress. In that year, she became Florence Kelley's assistant as the state's factory inspector and together the two women helped John Peter Altgeld to pass and enforce legislation that controlled child labour in Illinois. This included a law limiting women and children to a maximum eight-hour day. This success was short-lived and in 1895, the Illinois Manufacturers' Association had the law repealed. In 1896, Stevens became the first probation officer of the then-recently established Cook County Juvenile Court committee.