In August 1945 she married the Reverend Dr. Douglas Horton (died 1968), the dean of the divinity school at Harvard University. However, the work that she accomplished as a single woman, prior to her marriage, set her apart from many women of her time, whose husbands' work tended to open doors and overshadow women's accomplishments. In 1948, McAfee was asked to address the World Council of Churches, making her one of the first few women to do so. She told the council, "that the secular institutions need to be supplemented by a virile church, alert to its unique mission to keep man conscious of his relation to the loving, judging, living God."