Feminism: Examining the Dichotomy Between First and Third Worlds

This essay provides a comparative analysis of feminism in the First and Third Worlds. It begins by defining feminism and its historical context, including the evolution of feminist organizations and movements. The essay then delves into the specific challenges faced by women in Third World countries, such as poverty, sexism, and cultural practices like feticide and infanticide. It highlights the emergence of local feminist movements and the diverse perspectives on feminism in countries like Nigeria. The essay also examines the impact of Western beauty standards and sexualization on women's health in these regions. Subsequently, the essay explores the context of First World countries, detailing the influence of these nations on global feminist trends and the setting of standards. It discusses the persistence of sexism, domestic violence, and sexual harassment in developed countries, as well as the underrepresentation of women in public office. The essay concludes by arguing that feminism remains relevant in both First and Third World contexts, albeit with different priorities and manifestations, and emphasizes the ongoing need for the protection and advancement of women's rights globally.

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Organizations for feminism.........................................................................................................2
Third world countries......................................................................................................................3
First world countries........................................................................................................................4
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6
References........................................................................................................................................6
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Introduction
Feminism is one of the most talked of topics in the world of today. This refers to the promotion
of the rights of women and bringing an equality among the genders. This includes many political
movements that are being encouraged to help in the increase of the awareness and the application
of feminism in the society through education and policies for the advancement of women.
Education more than anything else is given stress upon for advocating feminism. (Butler, 2011)
The term “feminism” got popularity in the 1970s, although the use of the word was being done
for a long time. The history of feminism has three phases where the first one can be spotted in
the 19th century, the second in the 1960s leading onward and the last phase that has been
continuing till date since the 1990s (Grayzel, 2014). There were movements of feminism which
took place leading to the theory of feminism to be developed. Over time the perspective towards
and of feminism has seen change and there also have been diversions from the main stream of
feminist thought like the present day pseudo-feminism thought.
Organizations for feminism
It must be pointed out that more than 60% of the world’s population that is subject to the poverty
conditions are women. An organization, Amnesty International, which believes in defending the
rights of an individual, has given the data that a minimum of 1/3rd of the women all over the
world are abused in some way in their lifetime. The first global think tank that was created
pertaining to this issue is The Sisterhood (Kennedy, 2004). This is an institute that functions
across the globe. There were also many other movements and spin offs that were inspired by this
one movement.
A very high amount of recognition is brought by the United Nations to the issue of sexism and
the inequality that exists in the society on the basis of gender and sex roles. There are many
different conferences that have been held by the United Nations like the International Decade for
Women in Beijing, Nairobi, and so on. To the surprise of those who attended these conferences,
the conference that was held in Copenhagen, most of those who were official delegates of the
United Nations were not women. All these conferences had major roles to play in the setting up
the international scenario of feminism, like the conference in Beijing set the scenario through the
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Beijing Platform for Action. One of the most important and later steps that was taken was the
Convention that was held on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
Through this it can be scene that feminism is an international issue and not just a focus of any
one country or any sections of countries. It is not something that is focused upon by simply the
developing countries or the third world countries but also the developed and first world countries
as well. It has been seen that many people acknowledge that feminism means the equality mainly
among the men and the women, but they also fail to focus on the ways that it is applied in the
world. The Western young adults are working over the preparation to study abroad with the hope
to learn from the other culture and understanding the rights of the men and women. There is a
need to focus on the problems and the struggle which is set with the feminism and is important to
be dealt for the development as well. the expressions are related to the assistance that leads to the
creation of racist form of knowing (Braybon, 2012). The Western feminism is about believing
the women who are victims of the hierarchy with the universal agenda set among the females.
Third world countries
The factor of sexism is quite prevalent in the third world countries. The third world countries
include countries like the nations that are also referred to as developing countries sometimes.
These may include the countries of the section of Latin America, Asia, and Africa. These
countries have the typical characteristic of poverty that is general to the national but also along
with quite a major social and economic disparity across the nations, and within the nations. This
also include the battles of the sexes, where one sex is considered and treated as being quite
inferior to the other.
In the report that was presented by the Amnesty International, which has been mentioned earlier
in this report, it was given that there are much more chances for women to fall sick or die in
countries that are developing. The question that needs to be asked is, why is that?
The countries that are under the third world categories are feminism worse than the first world
countries, where surprisingly there still is quite a lot of sexism prevalent but also not as much as
in the third world countries. In some countries like India, women are not even allowed to live
and grow as the incidences of feticide and infanticide are very high which is specific to girl
babies. (Narayan, 2013). To overcome the severe situation in other countries that belong to the
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developing or the third world category the woman of these countries has come up with their own
movements that focus on this issue of sexism in these countries. These include the movements
that are included in the Women’s Movements in the Global Era: The Power of Local Feminisms,
edited by Amrita Basu (2010) and organizations like the Women Living under Muslim Laws of
the year 1984.
The idea of feminism is also seen differently at different countries and nations. In Nigeria, a
woman was quoted as saying that she grew up listening to the idea that feminists were those who
are “bra-burners” and were those who had problems with men and forming relationships with
them. Nanjala Nyabola also tells us that feminism in the third world countries such as Nigeria, is
very different from feminism in the first world countries. She talks about the freedom that
women in such countries want from the burdens that come along with the idea of feminism that
is mostly entertained in the first world countries (Zeiger, 1996). She also mentions that in third
world countries, feminism does not seek to get freedom for sexual liberation but that from
sexualization on the whole. The feminism of the two sections of the society have vast effects on
the physical and mental health of the women of these countries. Especially due to the idea of
sexualization and sexual liberty and the differences among these idea, and the expectations of the
society lead to various health consequences for the women of the third world countries. An
example can be taken of a country like, Fiji. Here women have high possibility of facing eating
disorders owing to the standards of beauty that have been put forward by the western world.
(Heng, 1997)
In many south Asian countries that main idea of a female is that she must be pretty or beautiful.
The focus is not on the development of the independence and the personality of the women but
that of the beauty. There are very limited and few defined roles of the women and these center
around serving others especially the family and the beautification of the women. The beauty
standards are also not healthy ones as they mostly involve the women being too thin, and also the
use of exposure of the body and often unreal physical beauty is given importance. (Afshar,
2005).
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First world countries
First world countries are those which are often referred to as developed countries, and are mostly
those countries which are industrial and capitalist countries. This includes a major part of the
United States of America, Europe, Australia and such. These are those that mostly set the trends
across the globe and have also influenced the ideas of feminism all over the world. (Okin, 1998).
This often results in the women of other countries feeling like some of the customs or traditions
that they follow as being wrong or a being judged by the women of the first world countries as
wrong. The idea of moral imperialism grip the women of the third world countries owing to the
standards that have been set by the women of the western world, those who belong to the first
world countries. It is a global concept that the successful woman is one who is achieving but also
attractive at the same time. This concept is not only prevalent in the third world countries but
also the first world countries. In fact, the first world countries are responsible for setting the
standards that most other countries follow. (Margolis, 1993).
Although the goals for the universal feminism have been set by the first world countries, the
main focus of which are the legal rights of the women and not the problem of poverty as in the
case of the third world countries, the attention is not on the global feminism standards but that on
the standards set by and prevalent in the particular social and cultural area that the women live
in. There is also an argument that if the first world countries actually need feminism. The answer
to this can be explored by the looking at the way in which the oppression of women in the first
world countries takes place. The setting up of laws has taken place which work for the
betterment of women which in itself shows that there definitely is a need for the preservation of
the right of the women in such countries as well. These laws are set, but it is also said that there
is not always the enforcement of these in the system. Often they go ignored. There is presence of
domestic violence in first world countries as in the third world countries. There are also
incidences of these incidences going unreported and also after being reported, a lack of action
exists often. This is not specific to countries that are third nations but also extends to the first
world countries. There is also the threat of sexual violence that remains on the women of both
the third and the first world countries, along with the possibility of other kinds of violence as
well. Women are expected to be responsible for their own safety, and to be careful so that they
do not get into a situation that there is a chance of any kind of violence against them. With
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women being more independent in terms of keepings jobs and not being dependent for daily
activities on other people, the chances for such violence against them increases. There is general
harassment of women, like street harassment that takes place even in first world countries. There
are strong stereotypes for women, like they are never linked with sport activities or as being
tech-savvy and such. (Brenner, 2003).
There is also difference in the occupation of the public office in the first world countries. It is
expected that there will be equal eligibility and equal occupation of the offices of the government
by both men and women, but in reality on the basis of the data received, this is not so. There is
an unequal distribution of posts of the government with more positions of power being occupied
by the men and less being occupied by women. There is also the fact that if the women who aim
for such posts, have husband or fathers who are already on a powerful post, have a higher chance
of making it to the post of their choice. (Amos, & Parmar,1984). The role as a wife or as a
daughter here has taken over the individuality of the woman. Contrary to this, there have been
cutbacks from the funding that was being given to the poor. This is not just to the women who
have children and need to take care to them, as taking care of children is much more tedious and
expensive than simply taking care of oneself. Along with this there are many of the jobs that put
the safety of women at risk. There is also unequal pay which is given, with women being paid
lesser than the male counterparts who work just as much as they so. There is also a glass ceiling
effects that still exists in spite of many women breaking it, there is still a general sense of the
existence of this effects that stops the women in the world of business from moving ahead and
leading organizations. If all of these are difficult to observe from a distant society, it is easy to
spot these through the world of entertainment where the claims are made of equality and just
treatment of both men and women, but does not exist in reality. The differences are easy to spot.
Conclusion
Sexism, therefore exists everywhere. The only difference is the difference of the degree of it. The
degree of the acceptance under the garb of the social norms and traditions, the degree to which
women accept their “fate” and do not find it as being something they can move up against, these
are the differences that exist. There is a threat to the safety of women all over the world, with
some areas being more sensitive and with the people being more hostile towards women than
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others, but the issue exists everywhere. There is the common phenomenon of the identification of
women on the basis of their sex roles rather than their roles as an individual in the society which
is something that exists in all societies.
In the cross cultural comparisons of the incidences of feminism, there can be seen that the main
framework of sexism and feminism are the same with the differences being in the social structure
that influences the way in which these are see, perceived, and accepted as being something
which is normal or required in some cases. These differences is what brings the dynamism in the
structure of feminism on the whole.
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Narayan, U. (2013). Dislocating cultures: Identities, traditions, and Third World feminism.
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