Miss Universe Pageant makes for ‘inclusive’ change, allowing wives and mothers to compete

The Miss Universe pageant is updating its 70-year-old eligibility rule.

From the 72nd pageant – which will take place in 2023 – married women and mothers will be allowed to participate in the pageant.

Preliminary pageants for this year’s event – which takes place in December – have already taken place.

Currently, the rule is that only single women between the ages of 18 and 28 who have never been married or had children can apply.

The age group remains the same, a source close to the organization confirmed to Insider.

“We all believe that women should have an impact on their lives and that a person’s personal choices should not be a barrier to their success,” reads an internal memo from The National.

The Post has reached out to the Miss Universe organization for comment.

“The Miss Universe Organization is always the largest and most innovative platform of its kind, and now it will make mothers and married women more inclusive and welcoming,” said Josh Yugen, executive director of the Yugen Group and national director of Miss Universe Bahrain The National. “To me, this is consistent with what I’ve been fighting for — to break stereotypes and unlearn the stigma that old society imposed on us many, many decades ago.”

Andrea Meza, who was crowned Miss Universe 2020, told Insider that the rule change is long overdue.

“I think it’s really great that this is happening,” Meza told the outlet. “As society is changing and women are now in leadership positions where previously only men could, it was time for the pageant to change and be opened up to women with families.

“There are a lot of women who got married young or had kids in their early 20s who always wanted to be in Miss Universe but couldn’t because of the rules,” she added. “Thanks to these changes, these women can now begin or advance their careers in entertainment.”

The rule affected Meza personally after her victory, when internet sleuths found an Instagram post of her in a wedding dress with a tuxedo-wearing man on a cliff with the caption “3-09-19.”

However, a Miss Universe spokeswoman told Insider at the time that the picture was only from a photoshoot she did while working as an official tourism brand ambassador for Chihuahua, where she lived in Mexico.

And Meza, who represented Mexico at the pageant, had a message for people who don’t like the new rule.

“Some people are against these changes because they’ve always wanted to see a beautiful single woman available for a relationship,” she said. “You’ve always wanted to see a woman who looks so perfect on the outside that she’s almost unattainable. The former is sexist and the latter unrealistic.

“As in any other industry, women can also take up demanding management positions with or without a family, it’s no different here,” explains Meza.