Miss Universe beauty pageant to allow married women, mothers to participate from 2023

Starting with the 72nd Miss Universe pageant in 2023,  married women will also be able to participate in and compete in the Miss Universe beauty contest.

Now, the marital and parental status will no longer affect a woman's ability to apply to compete in the pageant.

Up till now, only single women with no children between the ages of 18 and 28 were eligible to compete in the Miss Universe contest. As long as they held the title of Miss Universe, winners were also expected to abstain from getting married and having children.

Andrea Meza, Miss Universe 2020 winner, also applauded the change in rules. "I honestly love that this is happening. Just like society changed 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. "

"A few people are against these changes because they always wanted to see a single, beautiful woman who is available for a relationship. They always wanted to see a woman that, from the outside, looked so perfect that she was almost unreachable. The former is sexist, and the latter is unrealistic.