[1][2] From 1905 to 1920 she was employed in the Natural History Division of the National Museum of Ireland working primarily on the collections of marine invertebrates, including taking part in the Clare Island Survey.

She then went on to be the second woman to be awarded a degree (BSc) in the Royal University of Ireland in 1903, receiving second-class honours in geology and biology.

[9] She worked extensively with her fellow museum worker, Eileen Barnes, an artist who illustrated many of Stephens' publications.

In 1920 Stephens married Robert Francis Scharff, who was the then acting Director of the National Museum of Ireland and Keeper of the Natural History Division.

[13] The lack of an obituary to Stephens has been attributed to the fact that she outlived many of those she worked with during her 15-year career in Ireland,[4] such as Matilda Cullen Knowles, Eileen Barnes and Robert Lloyd Praeger.