Post-war Work and Legacy
Following her discharge from the WAAAF, Stevenson resumed her career as a senior executive with Berlei, and remained with the company until her retirement in 1960. Parallel to her work at Berlei, she was a trustee of the Services Canteens Trust Fund in Melbourne, maintaining her links with the organisation for the next forty years. A founding patron of the Council of Ex-Servicewomen's Associations, Stevenson was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 1960 Queen's Birthday Honours for her welfare work on behalf of female veterans. She helped set up the Scholarship Trust Fund for Civilian Widows' Children in 1963, and was a research officer with the New South Wales Council on the Ageing (COTA) from 1969 to 1978. In 1975, Stevenson was involved in establishing the Kings Cross Community Aid and Information Service, serving for a time as President and as a member of the Management Committee until 1987.
Stevenson founded the Carers Association of New South Wales, and became its first President, in 1980. While serving with COTA in 1974, she had prepared a report titled "Dedication" concerning the levels of assistance given to the elderly by their family and friends. This led to her forming a subcommittee of COTA made up of those she called "carers" in 1976, from which she later created the Carers Association as an independent organisation. As President of the association, Stevenson lobbied for the establishment of a Carers Pension in New South Wales, which was legislated in 1985. She is commemorated at the Carers Association (now Carers NSW) by the Clare Stevenson Memorial Lectures.
In 1984 Stevenson, together with Honor Darling, published The WAAAF Book, a collection of reminiscences by former members of the service. Stevenson was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in the 1988 Australia Day Honours for her services to the community and her welfare work with veterans. Her hobbies included reading, classical music and, in her younger days, surfing. Unmarried, Clare Stevenson died in Sydney on 22 October 1988.
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