Women in the early days of cytology: a personal recollection.

The fight for the acceptance of the validity of cytopathology has been fought by a group of individuals associated with George N. Papanicolaou. The common effort to convince the skeptics that Papanicolaou's method of diagnosing cancer was the best way to detect its presence at an early stage became a bond linking all of us. When we taught cytology, we felt more like preaching a gospel than like teaching a subject. Those of us who became involved in original research experienced an additional excitement from expanding the frontiers of our new specialty. This uniquely stimulating experience has been shared by women and men in most of the early cytology teaching centers throughout the world. This was different from the enthusiasm with which people enter the field of cytopathology today. All of us had to constantly prove the validity of what we were doing, whereas now the value of cytologic diagnosis is fully recognized and taken for granted.