The Female Undertaker

1. The Female Undertaker By Samantha Mendez

2. One cycle of our social world that seems to be repeating itself is the role of females in caring for the dead.

3. Women in Ancient Greece and Rome

4. Societies around the globe have long allocated death-care activities to women. This social outlook started in Greece and Rome.

5. Greece • Preparation of the body for burial was generally made by family members. The washing of the body with warm water was performed by women chosen from the next-of-kin. • This act of laying out and dressing the corpse was a sacred duty that was, more often than not, entrusted to female relatives. • The women in Greece were “completely in charge of caring for the body of the deceases, as well as the staging of related rituals – which go on for years after the death of an individual.

6. Rome • In Rome, women played a different role in death. • Libitina is the Roman goddess of death, corpses and funerals. Her temples were even equipped with all the necessities needed for funerals. They also held the records of the dead. • Because of her powerful influence, undertakers in Rome were called the Libitanarius, “so called because he exercised his business at the temple or grove of Libitina.” • The role that women played in death care was influenced in a major way by this foundational, feminine, mythological figure.

7. Women in the Americas: Late 18th Century

8. The role of women in the death care industry was evident in early America as well.

9. By the end of the eighteenth and into the middle of the nineteenth century, women in the Protestant communities of the northern states had the primary responsibility of getting the body ready for burial – a crucial activity performed by women in England for centuries. • Pre-19th Century, it was women (called “shrouding women”) who prepared bodies for death in America.

10. One of the first undertakers in the later 18th Century was, surprisingly to some, a woman: • - Blanch White, Upholsterer and Undertaker, from London. • Another evidence of the rise of women in the undertaking industry came from Montreal, Canada: • Mrs. Benjamin Birch, Funeral Undertaker.

11. Responding to death and, more specifically, preparing the corpse, was understood as a component of domestic life, and therefore was within the purview of women’s activities. • Midwives, nurses and women in general carried out the tasks associated with laying out the dead.

12. The Displacement of Women from the Death Care Industry

13. The distancing of women from the death care industry was influenced by the battlefield conditions of the Civil War as it was necessary to preserve the bodies of dead soldiers to ship back to their families. • The practice of embalming was, during this time, taken out of women’s hands not only because women were not on the battlefields of the civil War, but also because embalming was quickly becoming a science and women weren’t really allowed to go to school.

14. This displacement heralded the era of male-dominated death care in the U.S. into the 20th Century. • It hasn’t been an easy road for women who wish to come back to the work they traditionally performed.

15. Women in the 20th Century and Today

16. Our world today has greatly twisted what the death care industry really is. As a result, many are still seeing the funeral industry as being dominated by men. • Four decades ago, 95% of mortuary students were male, with the majority from funeral home families. It was a trade passed from grandfather-to-father-to-son.

17. June Nadle is a prime example of women trying to make it in the funeral industry in the early years where women in the business were rare. In her book “Mortician Diaries”, she tells how limited the employment opportunities were for women in 1945. She says, “It was a critical time in my life when I graduated from the Cincinnati College of Mortuary Science in 1945 and started seeking an apprenticeship. There were few licensed women in the business. As the only woman in my class of ‘45, I constituted 5% of our group (by the 1995 class, 355 of the students were young women.) After three months and seventy-nine letters to mortuaries in four western states, along with seventy-nine rejections, my oldest sister, Beth, helped me find work in a family-owned mortuary located in Hollywood, California.”

18. The idea that funeral service is a male-dominated industry still exists today. However, that is changing rapidly. • There have been more women than men in the mortuary science program since 2000, and the percentage of female students continues to grow.

19. One reason that the industry was male-dominated was due to the physical aspects of the profession. Naturally, men have more natural strength than women do. In the early years, funeral directors were required to be able to lift and carry bodies, which restrained the number of females from entering the profession. Today, equipment such as body lifts have largely reduced physical strain of transferring bodies, which also eliminated gender barriers in the profession.

20. A Change in Focus • The focus in the funeral industry is falling more onto the emotional aspects of the work rather than the more physical aspects of the job. • During an interview I had with Laura, a funeral director at Broomhead Funeral Home in Riverton, she talked extensively on this subject. She said the biggest strength she sees women possessing is that women are more able to empathize with grieving families and friends of the deceased. • The public sees women as natural “nurturers” with a much softer touch than men might have. • Laura said that she sees women’s natural ability to be emotionally in touch with the world as a strength and also as a way to better connect with families.

21. Although some see women as being too timid or sweet, women typically are very patient and willing to explain things. Women are more able to break down physical boundaries. People will accept a hug from a woman far more willingly than they will from a man.

22. The gender ratio has gradually become more balanced among students in an occupation long dominated by males. • There has been a dramatic increase of women coming into the industry – 57% of graduates today, as opposed to 5% in 1970.

23. Gone are the days when the image of a mortician or funeral director was an older white man in a black suit. In fact, the average mortuary school student nowadays is a woman between the ages of 21 and 25 whose family is not in the funeral service industry.

24. The rise of women in the death care and funeral industry will only become stronger with time, especially because we have started to see women bonding together in it all. • There is even a pink-accessorized women’s funeral director’s club called the Funeral Divas Inc. who seem intent on embracing their unique place in the industry.

25. Meet The Funeral Divas A Funeral Diva is a strong, confident and successful woman who works in the funeral industry. She is not ashamed of her career! She is proud to serve hurting families! She is an Embalmer, Funeral Director or Employee at a funeral home! She is a grief counselor, a casket sales woman or Mortuary Science Student! She is a woman who supports all women in Funeral Service! She simply loves her career! At long last, a social group for funeral industry women.

26. The influx of women into the field will change the way we think about funerals… women are going to impact it even greater. • We are starting to see, then, that the cycle continues as women have a larger desire to return to the work they traditionally performed in ancient times of Greece and Rome.