For centuries, feminists have worked to bring awareness to gender inequality and correction of societal flaws. In a traditionally patriarchal world, breaking societal pressed norms challenged the feminist movement; however, each adversity, the feminists countered getting closer to gender equality. From destroying the idea of the cult of domesticity to suffrage, women's rights in the first world have come far. With the advancements of women's rights in the first world, there is a separation between the first and third world of understanding the feminist problems in third world countries like sex trafficking, genital mutilations, polygamy, forced child marriage, and forced face veiling. The first world countries continue to advance while the third world slowly develops causing the developing world to be in far reach of obtaining a just society. The difference in development causes a disconnect between the regions also creating a disconnect between the feminists as well. Where feminists once had the simple goal of obtaining women's rights, now women in the first world seek different problems. The first world feminists have obtained a level of gender equality leading to diverted attention to smaller problems that question what constitutes a woman. This diversion also causes a negative perception of feminism whereas before it was a well-defined, respectable movement. There is also a division within feminists in the first world causing disagreement between what the movement should divert its attention to. As feminism in developed countries continues to be misrepresented feminists need to reevaluate to correct the disunity between traditional feminists and radical neoliberal feminists to begin efforts in helping grant basic human rights to women in patriarchal developing countries. This paper will explore the idea of feminism as it becomes less unified between the first and third world. Through exploration of this problem, this paper will look at how this movement has changed and ways to correct the movement. 

I. History of Feminism

Feminism is typically acknowledged through the movement in Western culture known for civil liberties. This idea of civil liberties stemmed from Ancient Greece (Pagila 2008). The ideology of feminism came from a flaw of Athens, Greece, the societal degradation of people like slaves and women. Feminism's foundations originate in granting civil liberties to women. Then, feminism transitioned to focus on capitalism. Capitalism liberated women from residing in their house with their father or husband through giving employment opportunities (Pagila 2008). Feminism transitioned to then focus on women's suffrage which feminism is most famously known for. The Quakers inspired this movement in Quaker meetings the men and women were treated as equals through female participation in public speaking (Pagila 2008). The roots of the movement in the Quaker religion caused the feminist leaders to be social conservative. This conservatism is apparent through the feminists' affiliation to the Temperance movement which urged the nation to ban alcohol. In the 1870s, the public called the Temperance movement the "Women's Crusade" or the "Women's Holy War" (Pagila 2008). Second Wave Feminism began with Betty Friedan's 1963 book, The Feminine Mystique (Pagila 2008).  It once again resurged in the 1970's and 1980's which the anti-pornography movement, thus once again continuing the roots of social conservatism. The Third Wave feminism began in the 1990's marked the pivotal division of liberal and conservative feminists; however, the division slowly built up with the 1970 organizations Women in Development and Gender and Development.

The division of neoliberal and traditional feminists originated from the transition of two influential feminist organizations Women in Development (WID) and Gender and Development (GAD).  Women first began to advocate on the development agenda in the mid-1970s through WID (Calkin 2015). Advocates for WID saw a need to integrate women into development policy frameworks to enhance productivity from increased participation. GAD formed from those against WID, "mostly of socialist and Third World feminists" because of WID's capitalist centered arguments (Calkin 2015). Through the formation of these two organization, two feminist approaches formed. Thus, WID became more liberal from Western influences and GAD became traditional from advocating for basic women's rights.

The negative perception of feminism only recently began with the third wave of feminism's aim to provide equality in employment opportunities.  Developed countries have gone far in equality outside the workplace; however, there is a need for development in the workplace.  Acceptance of the differences in gender has been the main reason that there has not been more effort in feminism in job atmosphere. Furthermore, the blame has been placed on neoliberals. Companies have created this negative portrayal of the 'feminization' of employment because of the following demands of gender equality policies (Calkin 2016). Because of their fear of added work, the companies make the association that all feminists are neoliberal. The companies' misguided perception of feminism is the result of the identity crisis within the third wave of feminism.

II. Modern Feminism's Identity Crisis

Decades ago, the idea of feminism was seen in a positive light. It was seen as an effort to bring men and women to a status of equality. With the third wave of feminism in the 1990s, there is a growing division between that the movement would like to focus on. The third wave of feminism has started an image problem. Feminism is no longer simply feminism. According to Wendy Kaminer in "Feminism's Identity Crisis", there are now different types of feminists: "political feminists (office-holders and lobbyists), different-voice feminists, separatist feminists (a small minority), pacifist feminists, lesbian feminists, careerist feminists, liberal feminists (who tend also to be political feminists), anti-porn feminists, eco-feminists, and womanists." This causes the biggest problem to be from within. The common thread of disunity stems from focusing on different causes that lack solidarity. 

 In the first world countries, women have equality of rights, for instance, suffrage and employment opportunities. This development has lead to a question on what to focus on next. As previously stated, there is a division between traditional and liberal feminists causing an identity for the movement as a whole. The public reflects this identity crisis through not understanding what feminism truly is.  Shaliene Woodley famously made a statement declaring that she does not consider herself to be a feminist because "I love men, and I think the idea of 'raise women to power, take the men away from the power' is never going to work out because you need balance." This shows the lack of understanding of what feminism is and causes people to join the movement for the wrong cause. The public perception of feminism has changed because of neoliberalism. Instead of extending efforts to more people, neoliberalism interrupted feminism's works in terms of more developed countries. In countries, like the United States, the public assumes that affiliation with feminism means affiliation with the neoliberal ideals. For instance, a new movement has started on Tumblr called Women Against Feminism (Butler 2014). This movement is generally mocking feminism. Men initially started the anti-feminist movement understandable due to the misconception that it is an anti-man movement. However, now women are against feminism thinking that feminism is hypocritical and selfish. Women who consider themselves anti-feminist acknowledge past success of the movement, but they believe that the movement has grown to give women an excuse to misbehave. 

Feminism is losing the strength of the movement. Men are afraid to talk about feminism. This is due to feminism lacking inclusivity. Men do not realize that the movement includes them due to their need to fight for gender equality. Not only do men not feel included in the movement, but the women who need someone to fight for their voice the most are not included. Australian prime minister Julia Gillard made a famous misogyny speech in which she called out her opponent Tony Abbott for being sexist. However, during her government position, she made policies that ultimately harmed women including "placing asylum seekers in privatized immigration detention, backing warlords in Afghanistan's Oruzgan province, supporting the Israeli occupation of Palestine, cutting benefits for single mothers and opposing gay marriage" (Loewenstein 2014).  This is why feminism is becoming growingly unsuccessful and there is an anti-feminist movement starting. Feminism is no longer addressing "poor women, queer women, ugly women, transsexual women, sex workers, single parents, or anybody else who fails to fit the mould" (Loewenstein 2014).  

The feminist movement is beginning to focus more on gender politics rather than social justice. In "Feminism Should Expand and Emphasize Social Justice Rather than Gender Politics", Jessica Valenti shows the shift in the feminist movement as a result of politics. The movement has failed to share with younger feminist what feminist is. The result of this is that the younger feminist struggle to define what the movement is and how to address the issues surrounding women's rights. Therefore, the younger generation is highly influenced by feminine political voices and how they will help women's rights, instead of addressing the problems right in from of them (Valenti 2012). This focus has caused the restriction of the movement to make developments. Instead of focusing on race, class, and sexuality, now feminists are focusing only on gender. Feminists are also disregarding the third world countries' need for help.

III. Third World's Calling to Feminists

In first world countries, there is a growing belief that we are in a post-feminist world.  From the outside, there is a growing amount of females gaining positions of power. Looking at statistics, it seems as though there is no need for feminists. "For instance, more women are enrolled at universities compared to men and the Speaker of the House is female (Fortini 2016)." However, if one looks closer to the problem, the third world struggles for women to gain basic human rights. According to the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and right without distinction of any kind" including sex. Despite this declaration, human rights are denied to women in developing countries. The women are not seen as human, but treated as property. Many third world countries are behind in women's rights due to culture. Western countries have already gotten rid of their patriarchal structures; however, in poor countries, women feel the wrath of patriarchal system through male dominance. The male dominance is seen through little assertions in houses to human trafficking and genital mutilations. 

The number of abuse of girls are growing rapidly world wide. According to national bestseller Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, "more girls have been killed in the last fifty years, precisely because they were girls, than men were killed in all the battles of the twentieth century" (Kristof and WuDunn 2009). More girls are killed in this routine "gendercide" in any one decade than people were slaughtered in all the genocides of the twentieth century." There is a cry for women's rights in these countries; however, those who claim they are feminists are not helping these regions. Kristof and WuDunn stated " In the nineteenth century, the central moral challenge was slavery. In the twentieth century, it was the battle against totalitarianism ...  in this century the paramount moral challenge will be the struggle for gender equality around the world" (Kristof and WuDunn 2009). Based on this statement, one would think that there would be more presence of feminism, however, there is a lack of presence of this movement in first world countries. Even in the news, there is growing emphasize of ISIS's male dominated movement. According to Huffington Post writer Phyllis Chesler, "ISIS is kidnapping young girls and raping them nine-to-ten times a day -- sometimes thirty to fifty times a day -- every day. These infidels -- Christians and Yazidis -- are viewed by Islamists as religiously permitted sex slaves and are auctioned off in slave markets. Many girls are killing themselves. Brothel slaves are begging for death or rescue and for the bombing of the brothels in which they are held captive" (Chester 2015). 

In "The Corruption Of Feminism", Janet Albrechtsen examines there is a growing divide between the more developed countries and less developed countries. Most developed countries are privilege and increasingly blind to the problems of less developed countries. In terms of feminism, the issues of women being oppressed originally was evenly dispersed. Now, where feminism is called, there is a lack of understanding in the developed nations. For instance, as previously stated, Australia's first female prime minister Julia Gillard used feminism as a tactic to get elected. One speech she gave when she won the election centered misogyny; however, the speech she did not truly understand misogyny and the impacts of it (Albrechtsen 2015). Coincidently, Malala Yousafzai was shot in Pakistan that day by Taliban, making a true sacrifice for a cause she was passionate about. This shows the divide between the new feminist and traditional feminist (Albrechtsen 2015). First world countries could have a profound impact on aiding women desperately needing feminist's attention, however, the missing presence of feminist is attributed to an internal problem.

IV. Technology's Role in Feminism

With the new wave of feminism, technology has a strong influence on the spread of ideas. A few years ago it was hard for feminist to spread ideas in a public way. Now, feminism can easily portray messages and efforts. Unfortunately, technology has currently only been used to convey the negative portray of feminism like the feminazis. Not many people wanted to be known as a feminist because of fear of being labeled a "feminazi" (Chittal 2015). Even celebrities like Katy Perry openly rejected the word "feminist". However, the spread of information has increased through technology raising some awareness especially with Twitter hashtags. For instance, when the 200 Nigerian school girls were kidnapped by Boko Haram, the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls trended worldwide to raise awareness (Chittal 2015).  Also, as a result, people can actively speak out against sexist companies like Victoria's Secret's "perfect body" slogan was removed. There still are ways to go, however, social media is giving a voice to feminism.

The power of technology is seen in the younger generation. The negative connotation of feminism is also apparent in high schools. Because media highly influences the younger generation, high schoolers are the generation determining the next steps for the feminist movement. Of the high schoolers interviewed by Huffington Post writer Jessica Kane, many of the males stated that they were against feminism because of lack of understanding what the feminist movement is about. Many people believe that feminism is anti-men rather than fighting for equality. This confusion could be the result of females leading the movement like Taylor Swift, Lena Dunham, and Emma Watson. There are no males in the face of the movement and the misconception of what feminism is continuing.

Technology is the means to make great change. In order to correct feminism's misrepresentation, the change first needs to start with technology or else the movement may experience its last wave. Feminism's identity needs to clearly defined on the internet because the younger generation relies on gaining information from technology. The identity of feminism was lost in the transition from the previous generations to the current generation. In order to resurge the foundation of the movement, Western feminists need to turn to places where the need is the highest. Third world countries need attention for help more than ever and first world countries have the tool of technology stronger than ever. Feminism has come a long way through historical successes, however, the movement's approaching demise must actively be stopped by addressing the identity problems from within. 

