A New Generation in Mourning: Women and Gen Z Are Transforming the Funeral Industry

4/23/25

In a profession defined by long-standing customs and quiet hallways, the funeral industry is beginning to look and sound a little different. The influx of women and Gen Z professionals is reshaping what funeral service means, how it’s practiced, and most importantly, who it serves.

Sage Parker, a licensed funeral director in Minnesota who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2022, is part of that change. 

“I love it,” Parker said of her work. “It’s hard to love something that surrounds such difficult emotions, but I find that a lot of my natural-born characteristics—empathy, being a friend, being someone to rely on—are really in line with what people are looking for.” 

She’s one of a growing number of women entering a field that has long been male-dominated; today, nearly 79% of mortuary science students are women, even as more than 80% of funeral home owners are men, according to the National Funeral Directors Association 2025 Generational Report.

“I fell into [the funeral industry] when my friend passed away and I had a really impactful conversation and experience with the funeral director there,” Parker said. “And that just kind of spurred it on in my mind that I wanted to be that person for others. The people that come into the industry are here because they love helping people.”

Parker’s graduating class was the first in the program’s history to be majority female. 

“It was really cool,” she said. “And I’m grateful that I work at a funeral home that is incredibly inviting to queer identities.” 

That inclusivity, she said, isn’t universal. Many funeral homes, particularly in slower-changing parts of the industry, continue to carry biases of past generations. 

“Because they’re young, or visually queer, or female, some of my colleagues are given fewer tasks or assumed to be worse at something,” she said. “Women are promoted to be the most empathetic and that we'd be great in arrangements, but we can't do transfers with heavy bodies because we're not strong, which is just factually incorrect.”

These experiences are playing out against a backdrop of major demographic and cultural change. Gen Z, those born between 1995 and 2012, is increasingly open about death and dying, and they’re more likely to see funeral directors as trustworthy and essential, according to NFDA data. 

Yet, while they value tradition like expressing a preference for casket burials over cremation, they also embrace green and alternative burial options, and demand transparency and digital access when planning funerals, according to NFDA data.

Parker sees these preferences firsthand. While she hasn’t worked many Gen Z funerals yet, she said that her peers tend to gravitate toward green options over more traditional services. 

Still, she sees how her generation is helping shift the tone: “They’re very blunt, very forward about what they want,” she said. “I think that’s due to our access to information, but I’m really excited for people to understand death as a process of life, not just this huge scary thing.”

Parker is also part of a wider cultural shift around how funeral directors present themselves. In one anecdote, she recalled rolling up her sleeves to reveal tattoos and putting in her nose ring before reentering a meeting with a grieving family who presented themselves as more alternative. 

“Being able to show that you are an individual via your piercings or your tattoos or the way you dress or the funky socks you wear can really help humanize you to somebody who originally sees you as this big terrible corporate person that's come to tell them their loved one is never coming back,” Parker said.

While funeral service was once synonymous with somber suits and emotional distance, Gen Z is bringing something new: authenticity. 

“The older generations want the professional look: suit and tie, yes ma’am, no sir,” Parker said. “Whereas the younger generations in that same culture seem a little more lax, a little more go with the flow.” 

Yet this transformation isn’t without tension. The industry still faces significant staffing shortages, intensified by the burnout of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“We were working 24/7 during the height of the pandemic,” Parker said. “And the people who enter this work do it because they care so they push themselves until they can’t anymore. Then they leave the industry altogether because they burn out.”

For Parker, the solution lies in better education and national regulation. Fix that she said and the answers will trickle out to other areas.

“Not requiring at least an associate’s degree to be a funeral director and mortician is doing a deep disservice to funeral service as a whole, not to mention the deceased,” she said.

Despite its challenges, the field is slowly becoming more inclusive and representative of the communities it serves. Professionals like Parker, and a rising tide of women and Gen Z leaders, is giving the funeral industry a new life in the face of death.

“A lot of funeral homes, since they're such a slow changing industry, unfortunately hold a lot of biases of our predecessors,” Parker said. “Even if, you know, entering the space you feel great, you'll find that maybe there's some condescension where there normally wouldn't be if you were a man or if you were straight.”