Women in Death Care: Novelty or Norm?

Women have been in the funeral profession for decades—so why does it still feel like an old man's club?

Recently, while exploring death care blogs, I came across a site that caught my attention. The Morte Girls had a page featuring a list of articles divided into two categories: “Newsworthy” and “New Nonsense.”

Scrolling through “New Nonsense” a clear theme emerged: the Morte Girls are exasperated by articles that frame young female morticians as trailblazers or barrier-breakers.

“The spate of articles professing that women are new, and a novelty, in funeral service has become tiresome. If you study the history of funeral service, you’ll find that female funeral directors haven’t been a novelty since, oh, about 1978.” - Morte Girls

In their critique of one of the articles about a young woman in the funeral profession, they argue that, when thinking of a mortician, no one conjures up an image of “a morose older man in a dark suit who’s been running the family-owned funeral home business for decades.”

Oh but that’s exactly the image that comes to mind when I picture a mortician.

Now, I’m not saying I think that’s what all morticians are like, but if I’m thinking in stereotypes I’m definitely not imagining a woman, as much as I’d like for that to be the case.

But this made me wonder—are women in funeral service actually as rare as they’re often portrayed? Or is this just a lingering misconception?

I wrote a blog post earlier on 5 DeathTok creators to watch for, and in diving down the deep dark depths of TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram, I noticed a pattern—almost all of the most influential death care content creators were women. Four of the five I featured were women, but if I had to guess, I’d say about 90% of the creators I researched were women.

It was so odd to me because my preconceived notion was that most funeral directors were men. My business partner and I had a whole conversation about why we thought that was.

At the time, my theory was women being in the funeral profession was already “breaking the mold” so they were more likely to be the ones again “breaking the mold” of talking openly and in some cases more positively about death.

I still like my theory, but statistics may help round out the story:

As of 2022, women made up 31% of morticians, undertakers, and funeral directors according to Data USA. They also tend to be younger than their male counterparts—the average age for men being 51.1 while for women it’s 43.1.

The most surprising statistic? As of 2022, 72% of new mortuary school graduates were women.

So while the proportion of mortuary students heavily favors women, the reality is that the number of practicing morticians still heavily skews male. There could be multiple factors at play. One possibility is that the number of female mortuary students has risen rapidly, and the workforce hasn’t caught up yet—but it will, naturally, over time. Or it could be that female mortuary students aren’t actually using their degrees to become morticians at the same rate men are. If it’s the former, time will naturally balance those numbers. But if it’s the latter, something deeper is driving women away from the profession—and that’s worth exploring.

Could workplace culture, long hours, or lack of mentorship be contributing factors? Understanding what prevents women from entering or staying in the field could help funeral homes create more inclusive, supportive work environments.

I don’t have the answers (and I’m not sure anyone does yet), but one thing is clear: with staffing shortages as a major concern for funeral homes, attracting and retaining the female talent emerging from mortuary schools will be critical to the industry's future.