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

The Miss Universe has decided that it will allow mothers and married women to participate in the beauty contest from the 72nd Miss Universe pageant in 2023.

Until now, the Miss Universe pageant allowed only unmarried and women with no children between ages of 18 and 28 to participate. Winners were also expected to stay unmarried and not bear children till they held the title of Miss Universe.

According to an internal memo, the pageant stated, "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."

Andrea Meza, Miss Universe 2020 winner, applauded the change in rules. "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," she told Business Insider.

"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, looks so perfect that she's almost unreachable. The former is sexist and the latter is unrealistic."