I discuss three factors that shaped my academic development: (1) trial and error process of options; (2) available opportunity structures, as well as constraining gender norms; and (3) experiencing a sense of fit between my passions and a particular setting. Though not part of graduate training in the mid-60s, gender research became my primary focus soon after I received my PhD. This was the “fit” that I was looking for, and in the subsequent decades I was able to join with a new generation of scholars to address phenomena that needed to be recognized, analyzed, and addressed. Attributions, stereotypes, and discrimination became a major focus, in studies conducted in both laboratory and field. In my gender work, as well as subsequent work on immigration, I often incorporated the more macro-level perspectives from sociology to provide a fuller account of the social phenomena of interest.