There’s a generational shift happening in the funeral industry: Over the past four decades, female enrollment in mortuary programs has increased from 5 percent to roughly 75 percent of recent graduating classes. But why? For the Los Angeles Review of Books, Andie Eisen examines this trend, speaking with three women working in the deathcare field. Some were drawn in by a fascination with death or a formative funeral experience; others by a calling to a higher purpose and a desire to bring intimacy and care to a field long seen as impersonal, commercial, and male-dominated.

When you speak with a mortician, their tone gives away the questions they’ve answered hundreds of times before. Don’t you get scared? No. Morticians are more afraid of doing a bad job. Have you seen a ghost? Sadly, no. Once, a cosmetologist thought a body was shaking, but it was just an earthquake. Do you get grossed out? Not really, but they’re only human, and the medical field can challenge the senses. The questions themselves hint at a broader problem: outside of urban legends and crime procedurals, the average American knows very little about the death industry.