The Miss Universe contest recently announced a rules adjustment that would allow more women to compete, according to a recent report.
Insider reported on the change to the current rules, which limited participation to only single women between the ages of 18 and 28 for all 70 years of the competition. The new update will allow mothers and married women to also compete for the Miss Universe title.
“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,” an internal memo seen by The National said. A source claims the memo went out to national directors last week.
“The Miss Universe Organization is always the greatest and most innovative platform of its kind and now it will be more inclusive and welcoming to mothers and married women,” national director of Miss Universe Bahrain Josh Yugen told The National.
“For me, this is aligned with what I have been fighting for — breaking stereotypes and unlearning the stigma that the old society has forced on us from many many decades ago.”
The Miss Universe winner from 2020 also celebrated the rules update, saying it’s about time moms and wives could participate.
“I honestly love that this is happening,” Miss Universe winner Andrea Meza said. “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.”
“There are a lot of women that got married young or had kids in their early 20s and they always wanted to participate in Miss Universe but couldn’t because of the rules,” she continued. “Now those women can start or boost their careers in entertainment because of these changes.”
The update means a lot to Meza personally as her win was tainted when photos of her in a wedding gown were discovered online, causing a scandal at the time. It turned out the images were from a photo shoot, but the Mexican model insists it shouldn’t matter if she’s married or single.
“A few people are against these changes because they always wanted to see a single, beautiful woman who is available for a relationship,” she said, per Insider. “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.”
“Just like in any other industry, women are capable of having demanding leadership positions without or with a family, it is no different in this case,” Meza concluded.