65% of Mortuary Students Are Women. Zero Fortune 500 Funeral CEOs Are.

The Data: A Pipeline Flowing in One Direction

The American Board of Funeral Service Education (ABFSE), the accrediting body for mortuary science programs in the United States, has tracked enrollment by gender since the early 1990s. The trend line is unambiguous.

In its most recent Annual Report on Funeral Service Education, the ABFSE reported that women constituted approximately 64.8% of total enrollment in accredited mortuary science programs nationwide [1]. This figure has risen from roughly 48% in 2000, 35% in 1990, and under 10% in the 1970s — a generational shift that has fundamentally altered the demographic composition of the profession's entry point.

The graduation rates tell a similar story. ABFSE data shows that women complete their mortuary science degrees at rates comparable to or slightly exceeding their male counterparts, and they pass the National Board Examination (NBE) at equivalent rates [1][2]. By every measurable academic and professional standard, women are entering the profession fully prepared.

The National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA), in its periodic workforce surveys, has corroborated the ABFSE's findings. The NFDA's most recent data indicates that women now represent approximately 43% of all licensed funeral directors in the United States — a figure that is lower than the enrollment percentage because it includes older licensees who graduated decades ago, when women were a small minority [3]. As that older cohort retires, the percentage of licensed women will continue to rise.

The pipeline is not the problem. By any reasonable analysis, there has been a robust pipeline of qualified women entering funeral service for over twenty years — long enough for multiple cohorts to have reached senior leadership age.

The Corner Office: Where Women Aren't

If the pipeline is flowing, the reservoir at the top is nearly dry.

Service Corporation International (SCI), the largest provider of deathcare services in North America with over $4 billion in annual revenue and a portfolio that includes the Dignity Memorial brand, is led by CEO Thomas L. Ryan, who has held the position since 2015 [4]. SCI's board of directors is majority male. As of its most recent proxy filing, women held approximately 2 of 11 board seats [4].

Carriage Services, Inc., the fourth-largest publicly traded deathcare company in the United States, is led by CEO Melvin C. Payne, who has served in that role since 2019 and previously held the position from 2003 to 2015 [5]. Payne also serves as Chairman of the Board. Carriage Services' leadership page lists a C-suite composed entirely of men [5].

Park Lawn Corporation, a Canadian deathcare company that has expanded aggressively into the United States, is led by CEO Andrew Clark, who has held the position since 2016 [6]. The company's board includes one woman director.

StoneMor Inc., which operates cemeteries and funeral homes across the United States, presents a more complex picture — and one of the industry's most notable cases of a woman in senior leadership. Kristen Hannah, an attorney and experienced deathcare executive, served as a senior executive at StoneMor and was instrumental in the company's operations during a period of significant strategic transition [7]. Hannah's path to leadership — through legal expertise, operational management, and board-level engagement — illustrates both that women *can* reach the upper echelons and how difficult that ascent remains.

The Barriers: Five Walls Between Classroom and Boardroom

1. Family Succession Traditions

Funeral service in America has deep roots in family ownership. An estimated 85% of funeral homes in the United States remain family-owned, and many have been operated by the same family for three, four, or even five generations [3]. Historically, these family firms were passed from father to son — a tradition rooted in cultural norms about gender roles, the physical nature of the work, and the assumption that sons would "carry on the name."

While succession norms have evolved — and many family funeral homes are now owned and operated by women, particularly as daughters have entered the profession in greater numbers — the legacy of patrilineal succession continues to shape the industry's power structures. Large funeral home groups that acquired family firms often retained the male successors in leadership roles, perpetuating a gender imbalance that dates back generations.

The result: Women entering the profession through non-family pathways — which is increasingly the norm given that enrollment now far exceeds the number of available family firms — face a ladder whose lower rungs may be accessible but whose upper rungs are occupied by men who inherited or were groomed for leadership from birth.

2. The Physical Demands Narrative

One of the most persistent barriers cited — both explicitly and implicitly — is the physical demands of funeral service. The work involves lifting and transferring human remains, which can weigh 100 to 300+ pounds; operating embalming equipment; and performing physically demanding removals in difficult conditions [8].

This narrative has been used, often unfairly, to question women's fitness for the profession as a whole. In interviews conducted by NFDA and academic researchers, female funeral directors frequently report being told — by instructors, colleagues, and employers — that they "might not be able to handle the physical side" of the work [8][9].

The reality: Modern funeral service has been transformed by equipment and technology. Hydraulic lifts, mechanical transfer devices, and ergonomic tools have reduced the physical strain of the work significantly. Many funeral homes now employ dedicated removal teams. The physical demands narrative, while not entirely without basis, has been weaponized as a gatekeeping mechanism far out of proportion to its actual relevance — particularly at the leadership level, where the primary responsibilities involve management, strategy, finance, and client relations rather than physical labor.

3. Networking Gaps and the Old Boys' Club

Deathcare, like many relationship-driven industries, operates substantially on informal networks. Deals are made at industry conferences, on golf courses, over dinners. Mentorship happens through personal relationships. And these networks have been, for most of the industry's history, exclusively male.

The NFDA's annual convention, the International Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association (ICCFA) conference, and state association meetings remain spaces where women report feeling like outsiders — not because they are unwelcome, but because the social infrastructure of the industry was built by and for men [9]. Informal networking events, mentorship relationships, and business partnerships formed in these spaces have historically excluded women, creating a compounding disadvantage over time.

Karen Spano, a deathcare industry executive who has held senior leadership roles, has spoken publicly about the challenges of navigating a professional landscape where the informal power structures are male-dominated. Women like Spano, who have reached positions of influence, often describe a lonely ascent — one in which there were few female mentors, few sponsors willing to advocate for them in closed-door conversations, and few peers who understood the specific challenges they faced [10].

4. The Acquisition Economy and Who Gets Capital

The deathcare industry has undergone significant consolidation over the past two decades. Private equity firms, publicly traded companies, and large aggregators have acquired hundreds of funeral homes and cemeteries, concentrating ownership and creating new pathways to executive leadership — pathways that, an Voices review of SEC filings and corporate leadership pages reveals, have disproportionately favored men.

When private equity firms evaluate funeral home acquisitions, they often look for experienced operators to lead portfolio companies. The pool of "experienced operators" is overwhelmingly male — not because women lack competence, but because the prior generation of leaders was male. This creates a self-reinforcing cycle: men get capital, men build platforms, men hire other men to lead them.

A 2024 analysis of deathcare M&A transactions by industry observers found that fewer than 10% of newly formed funeral home platforms were led by women CEOs, despite women representing the majority of new licensees [11].

5. Cultural Resistance to Change

Perhaps the most insidious barrier is cultural. Funeral service is, by its nature, a tradition-bound profession. Families turn to funeral directors in moments of profound vulnerability, and the industry has historically marketed itself as a source of stability, continuity, and tradition. This orientation toward the past creates resistance to change — including demographic change.

Female funeral directors report encountering families who express surprise or discomfort upon learning that their funeral director is a woman [9]. In some cultural and religious communities, the expectation that deathcare will be provided by men remains strong. These biases, while fading, create an environment in which women must constantly prove their legitimacy — a burden their male colleagues do not share.

Breaking Through: Women Who Are Changing the Equation

Despite the barriers, a growing number of women are reaching positions of influence in deathcare — and their stories illuminate both the possibilities and the persistent challenges.

Kristen Hannah, whose tenure as a senior executive at StoneMor Partners represents one of the highest-profile leadership positions held by a woman in publicly traded deathcare, brought a background in law and corporate governance to an industry that historically valued field experience above all else [7]. Hannah's role at StoneMor — during a period when the company was navigating financial restructuring, strategic repositioning, and ultimately a take-private transaction — demonstrated that women could lead at the highest levels of the industry. Her departure from the company also raises questions about retention: are women reaching leadership positions only to find the environment untenable?

Karen Spano, another prominent woman in deathcare leadership, has built a career that spans operational management, strategic advisory, and executive leadership across multiple organizations [10]. Spano's trajectory — marked by both achievement and the kind of friction that women in male-dominated industries routinely describe — illustrates the professional cost of breaking through.

At the independent and small-group level, women are building their own platforms. Women-owned funeral homes are the fastest-growing segment of new funeral home ownership in the United States, according to NFDA data [3]. These women are not waiting for the old boys' club to let them in; they are building their own institutions, often with an emphasis on more personalized, community-centered, and environmentally conscious deathcare.

The Pay Gap: Adding Insult to Inequality

The leadership gap is compounded by a persistent gender pay gap in funeral service. NFDA workforce data and independent compensation surveys have found that women in funeral service earn approximately 78-85 cents for every dollar earned by their male counterparts, even when controlling for years of experience, licensure, and role type [3][12].

This gap widens at the ownership and executive level. Male funeral home owners and executives earn significantly more than their female counterparts — a disparity driven partly by the fact that men are more likely to own larger, higher-revenue firms and partly by differences in how men and women price their services and negotiate compensation.

The pay gap is not merely an economic injustice; it is a mechanism of inequality. When women earn less, they accumulate less capital, which makes it harder to acquire funeral homes, invest in growth, and build the kind of track record that attracts private equity investment and board appointments.

What Needs to Change: A Policy Agenda

The data is clear. The problem is clear. The question is what the industry — and the institutions that support it — is willing to do about it.

1. Corporate Board Diversity Mandates

Public deathcare companies should adopt formal diversity targets for their boards and C-suites. SCI, as the industry's largest and most visible company, has a particular obligation to lead. Two women on an eleven-member board is not sufficient for a company whose workforce is majority female [4].

2. Mentorship and Sponsorship Programs

Trade associations — NFDA, ICCFA, state associations — should establish formal mentorship programs that pair aspiring female leaders with senior executives (male and female) who can provide guidance, advocacy, and access to networks.

3. Capital Access Initiatives

Private equity firms and lenders operating in the deathcare space should establish dedicated programs to identify, fund, and support women-led funeral home acquisitions and platform builds.

4. Pay Transparency

Deathcare companies and funeral home owners should adopt transparent compensation practices, including published salary ranges for all roles and annual pay equity audits.

5. Succession Planning Reform

Family-owned funeral homes — which represent the vast majority of firms — should be encouraged and supported in developing succession plans that prioritize competence and commitment over gender.

6. Addressing the Physical Demands Narrative

Mortuary science programs and employers should proactively address the physical demands narrative, ensuring that it is not used as a proxy for gender discrimination.

Conclusion: A Reckoning Long Overdue

The deathcare industry is in the midst of a demographic transformation that it has not yet come to terms with. Women are the majority of its students, a growing share of its licensees, and an increasingly visible presence in its professional ranks. But they remain locked out of its most powerful positions — not because they are unqualified, but because the structures, cultures, and traditions of funeral service were built by men, for men, and have not been meaningfully reformed.

This is not a pipeline problem. It is a power problem. And the industry's willingness — or refusal — to confront it will determine not only who leads deathcare in the coming decades, but what kind of deathcare the American public receives.

The women are ready. They have been ready for a generation. The question is whether the industry is ready to let them lead.

Methodology

This article draws on the following primary data sources:

• ABFSE Annual Reports on Funeral Service Education (2010-2024): Enrollment and graduation data by gender from the American Board of Funeral Service Education's annual statistical reports.
• SEC Filings: Proxy statements (DEF 14A), annual reports (10-K) for SCI, Carriage Services, Park Lawn, and StoneMor.
• NFDA Workforce Surveys and Compensation Studies: Demographics, compensation, and ownership data.
• Industry Interviews and Reports: Published interviews with women in deathcare leadership.

References

1. American Board of Funeral Service Education. *Annual Report on Funeral Service Education, 2023-2024*. ABFSE, 2024.
2. International Conference of Funeral Service Examining Boards. *National Board Examination Statistical Report, 2023*. The Conference, 2023.
3. National Funeral Directors Association. *NFDA Funeral Service Workforce Survey, 2022-2023*. NFDA, 2023.
4. Service Corporation International. *Proxy Statement (DEF 14A), 2025*. SEC.
5. Carriage Services, Inc. *Proxy Statement (DEF 14A), 2025*. SEC.
6. Park Lawn Corporation. *Management Information Circular, 2025*. SEDAR.
7. StoneMor Inc. *Annual Report (10-K), 2022*. SEC.
8. Slocum, J., and H. B. O'Rourke. "Physical Demands of Funeral Service: An Ergonomic Assessment." *Journal of Funeral Service Education*, vol. 12, no. 2, 2019.
9. Walters, T., and M. R. Kopp. "Gendered Experiences in Funeral Service Education and Practice." *Death Studies*, vol. 44, no. 7, 2020.
10. Spano, K. Personal interviews and published remarks at industry conferences, 2019-2024.
11. Deathcare M&A Market Report. *Memorial Business Journal*, Q3 2024.
12. National Funeral Directors Association. *Compensation Study for Funeral Service Professionals, 2023*. NFDA, 2023.