“It’s My Calling”: Gendered Pathways to Funeral Work

One of the most prominent features of the U.S. labor force is sex segregation among college majors and across career choices. Hegemonic cultural gender beliefs shape career choices and most men and women go into gender typical majors and occupations, even in death care industries. To better understand how cultural gender beliefs shape occupational choice and socialization, this article investigates the gendered pathways to funeral directing, an occupation historically male-dominated and currently feminizing. Using 21 interviews with mortuary science students, the findings indicate gender differences in the pathways to funeral work and highlight how occupational choice and socialization into funeral work is a gendered process.