After completing her master's degree in social work and relocating to Pennsylvania, Steytler embarked on a career in
social work. During the early 1970s, Steytler provided marriage counseling services to adults in the Greater Pittsburgh area. She also collaborated with
Ellen Berliner to plan, launch and secure non-profit status for the
Women's Center & Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh. Using their own money to establish the center, their first planning meeting was held in Berliner's living room. They subsequently rented a small storefront location on West Liberty Avenue in order to open a crisis center for women and children experiencing domestic violence and then secured a $5,000 grant from the
Pittsburgh Presbytery to rent a house in
Dormont, where they established their first shelter. That shelter initially offered safety for up to six women at a time, and cost roughly two thousand dollars per year to operate. As word of their efforts spread, they began receiving pledges of financial support from area residents, which quickly reached roughly four hundred dollars per month. The Women's Center & Shelter of Pittsburgh was officially incorporated in April 1974. One of the first six
domestic violence response and prevention centers ever created in the United States, the center pioneered programs that helped women and children survive, escape and heal from the
cycle of domestic violence and/or
sexual assault. As Berliner and Steytler became more familiar with the number of women and children affected by these crimes, they established and operated a telephone hotline to provide victims with a safe way of requesting help. Their initiatives were subsequently used as models for the launch of similar centers and programs by other civic leaders across the nation. From 1975 through 1977, their program provided housing assistance to five hundred and twenty-eight women and three hundred and eleven children. More than fifty percent of those women and children had experienced domestic violence. By 1979, the center had a yearly budget of $160,000, which was funded by grants from the federal government, the
Allegheny County Board of Public Assistance, the Attorney Generals Public Health Trust, the
Hillman Foundation, and the Pittsburgh Foundation, as well as individual donations from area residents. That year, the center's hotline averaged roughly seventy-five calls daily. By 1992, the center employed a staff of thirty-five and had an operating budget of $1.5 million. That year, more than twelve thousand calls for assistance were made to the center's hotline. In 1993, more than seven hundred women and children were housed by the center's shelter. Also during this same period, Steytler and the Berliner family were part of a group of fifty parents, students and other community members who filed suit in the
Common Pleas Court of Pennsylvania "to prohibit
Mt. Lebanon School District from including prayers in its commencement exercises." Steytler was also active with the
National Organization for Women, serving on the board of directors of NOW's
North Hills, Pennsylvania chapter and as secretary of that board during the early 1980s. In 1984, she was a consultant to the Parent & Child Guidance Center in
Castle Shannon, Pennsylvania, and presented a six-part training series for parents of pre-school and elementary school-aged children at the Mt. Lebanon United Methodist Church. In 1982, Steytler and Berliner expanded their anti-domestic violence work by developing educational outreach programs for, and lobbying on behalf of, the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Violence. In 1983, they lobbied local and state officials for stronger legal reporting requirements in
elder abuse cases and protective services funding for victims of mental and physical abuse. They also planned and implemented the National Day of Unity in October 1982 to commemorate the deaths of women who were killed in domestic violence-related incidents. ==Later years==