In my front-loading washer, my fabric softener drains from its divider too quickly - what should I do?

I have a front-loading washer with a pull-out drawer that has three separate compartments - one for soap, one for bleach, and one for fabric softener. When I pour the fabric softener into its compartment, it is supposed to stay in its divider and not drain into the load until the rinse cycle. Recently, however, whenever I pour in the fabric softener, it drains immediately without me even closing the drawer or starting the cycle, and the wash cycle hampers its effects tremendously. Any suggestions as to what might be going on here or how I might be able to fix it???