The popularity of White Lady Funerals is an indication that taboos on women organising funerals are breaking down and that changes are taking place in the Australian way of death. This paper sets out to examine the factors contributing to the changing role of women in the funeral industry. It is argued that women's participation is symbolically important because funerals are an area of public ritual in which appropriate gender relations are affirmed in ways that have implications for women's citizenship. More is at stake than equal opportunity in the workplace. As Kearl puts it, the funeral 'not only serves as a rite of passage for the survivors and the dead but it also reflects the cultural ethos and entire social order' (1989: 170).
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