In 1880, she joined a new Knights of Labor local, Garfield Assembly 1684, which she came to run with Mary Hanafin.
[1] In 1883, Stirling was elected as one of eight District 1 delegates to the national Knights of Labor convention.
[2] The conventions had previously been all-male, but union leader Terence V. Powderly ruled that women should be admitted on an equal basis to men.
She was also appointed as secretary of a Knights of Labor committee to collect data on women and work.
[2] As of 1902, Stirling was still living in Philadelphia, where she was the forewoman of a department in a large shoe factory.