In a historic decision, the organisers of the prestigious Miss Universe beauty pageant have decided to change the eligibility criteria for participants. As per the new rule, Miss Universe will now allow married women, and mothers to participate in the beauty pageant from 2023. This comes as a significant change in the 70-year-old tradition of Miss Universe contest, where a woman’s marital and parental status was a major obstacle for her participation.
In 2023, at the 72nd edition of Miss Universe, married women and mothers from across the globe will be allowed to participate for the first time. Earlier, only unmarried women between the age groups of 18-28, with no children, were permitted to participate in the beauty pageant. The winners of the beauty pageant were also required to stay unmarried and not have children throughout the period they held the title of Miss Universe.
“We all believe that women should have agency over their lives and that a human’s personal decisions should not be a barrier to their success,” read a memo issued by the organisers of Miss Universe, The National reported.
Miss Universe 2020, Andrea Meza welcomed the change. “I honestly love that this is happening. Just like society changes and women are now occupying leadership positions where in the past only men could, it was about time pageants changed and opened up to women with families,” Meza was quoted as saying by the Insider.
Meza also talked about those who are not welcoming the changes and said that a few people are against these changes because they always wanted to see a single beautiful woman who is available for a relationship. She also asserted that these people created a perception around these women who should appear so perfect that they seem “unreachable”. Bashing these opinions, Meza said that “the former is sexist and the latter is unrealistic.”
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