In Elberfeld, she then attended a class for plasterers and stonemasons at the local arts and crafts school.

From 1903 to 1906, she received private training from Karl Janssen in Düsseldorf, as women were not allowed to attend the arts academy.

Steger was invited by the art patron Karl Ernst Osthaus to Hagen in 1910, where she was commissioned to create the first large-scale architectural sculpture for the city, creating four statues of women for the facade of the Hagen Theater.

Her financial situation deteriorated during World War I such that she could no longer afford the rent for her studio in Hagen.

Just before her death in 1948, Steger was named the honorary president of the Democratic Women's League of Germany.