 In 1933 she met the painter Robert Steed (b.1903), whom she married in 1947.Philosopher Sidney Hook persuaded Steed to return to NYU and in 1938 she completed her B.A.with honors in sociology and anthropology, then studied as a graduate at Columbia University until 1940 as a Research Fellow in the Department of Anthropology under Professor Ruth Benedict whom she had met in 1937 and who in 1939 led Gitel Steed's first field experience among the Blackfoot Indians of Montana.