Keeping Up Appearances – The women taking over the funeral industry

Women have moved from a small minority to roughly 75 percent of recent mortuary-science graduates, with some programs reporting female enrollment as high as 100 percent. The shift challenges the profession’s image as a male domain and its public reputation for creepiness and greed. That reputation was cemented in part by Jessica Mitford’s 1963 exposé of funeral-industry abuses, including exploitative sales practices and the rise of corporate chains such as Service Corporation International. Yet embalmers interviewed here earn about $40,000-$50,000 a year, and describe their work as service rather than a route to wealth.

The women’s accounts point to encounters with death - and dissatisfaction with how loved ones were prepared for funerals - as powerful reasons for entering the field. One found comfort in her grandfather’s open-casket funeral and felt useful during the pandemic; another pursued embalming after her grandmother’s poor presentation convinced her she could do better. The work combines heavy lifting and medical knowledge with creative reconstruction and careful attention to individual cases. Practitioners refer to the dead as “decedents,” treat them with respect, and rely on colleagues to process difficult losses. Rather than becoming hardened by tragedy, they find purpose in restoring dignity and helping families through grief.