Changes in Gender Discrimination after Death: Evidence from a Cemetery

Abstract

Information on tombstones from a large cemetery in New York State were analyzed for gender discrimination. Criteria for gender bias were indications of familial relationships, absence of surnames, and absence of maiden names combined with surname for married women. Overall, females were far more likely to be identified in terms of familial relationships and were far less likely to have their married surname included on their gravestone. However, when the data were divided into 50 year epochs, it was apparent that identification of women in terms of familial relationships had become far less common and indication of surnames had become more common over the last 150 years. There was also a slight trend for women to have both their maiden and surnames on their grave markers.