WASHINGTON, Pa. — When Danielle Andy Belusko was a teenager, she announced to her family that she wanted to become a funeral director. Her parents repeatedly asked if she was certain about her career choice.

“They still say, ‘Are you sure this is what you want to do?’” laughed Belusko, 41, owner of an all-female funeral home, Cremation & Funeral Care by Danielle Andy Belusko in McMurray. “It was a male-dominated industry. I faced a lot of obstacles when I started.”

Until recently, few women were funeral directors in the American funeral industry. In 1991, one-third of mortuary students were female; in 1971, just 5 percent were.

But that is changing.

Today, nearly 60 percent of mortuary science students are female, and women make up more than 16 percent of all National Funeral Directors Association members — a nearly 7 percent hike over a decade before, according to the association. At the Pittsburgh Institute of Mortuary Science, about 62 percent of students are women.

Belusko, a graduate of PIMS and Robert Morris University, where she earned a business degree, thinks it makes sense that more women want to be funeral directors.

“I do think that women are nurturing by nature. Everybody turns to us when they have a boo-boo or need dinner, or anything, really. We turn to wives, mothers and sisters. This job is really meant for women,” said Belusko. “It’s not that we do it better than men, or men can’t do it, but for it to be such a male-dominated industry and just now making that turn is crazy to me because we are caregivers, that’s who we are.”

Dr. Joseph Marsaglia, dean of students at PIMS, said that the increase in female funeral directors reflects the strong caregiving component to funeral planning and changes in attitude toward women who work in traditionally male jobs, such as police officers, ministers, firefighters and engineers.

For much of history, Marsaglia noted, it was women who cared for the dead. They washed and dressed bodies for burial, and cooked and cared for families of the deceased.

But undertaking became a profession — and the work of men — during the Civil War, when surgeons began embalming the bodies of soldiers, and women’s participation plummeted.

Belusko will tell you it’s no easy job, with odd hours, grieving customers, and, often, incredibly sad stories.

But her job has its rewards.

“I willingly chose this job. I’m very passionate about what I’m doing,” said Belusko. “I do believe I’m a true caregiver. You cannot do this business unless you want to do it and are committed to it. It’s very demanding, but I love what I do. This is my passion. I have never wanted to do anything else.”