國際勞動婦女節 (International Working Women's Day) 又稱“聯合國婦女權益和國際和平日”(U.N. Day for Women's Rights and International Peace)或“三八”婦女節，是全世界勞動婦女團結戰斗的光輝節日。在這一天，世界各大洲的婦女，不分國籍、種族、語言、文化、經濟和政治的差異，共同關注婦女的人權。近幾十年來，聯合國的四次全球性會議加強了國際婦女運動，隨著國際婦女運動的成長，婦女節取得了全球性的意義。這些進展使國際婦女節成為團結一致、協調努力要求婦女權利和婦女參與政治、經濟和社會生活的日子。

    國際勞動婦女節 ——1909年3月8日，美國芝加哥的勞動婦女和美國其他地區的紡織工業及服裝工業的女工，為了要求增加工資、實行八小時工作制和獲得選舉權，舉行了規模空前的大罷工和示威游行。這一斗爭得到了美國和世界廣大勞動婦女的熱烈響應和支持。1910年8月，在丹麥哥本哈根召開了第二屆國際社會主義婦女大會，出席會議的有17個國家的婦女代表。德國和國際工人運動的活動家、國際婦女書記處書記克拉拉·蔡特金，倡議把3月8日作為國際勞動婦女節。新中國成立后，中央人民政府政務院于1949年12月23日規定“三八”國際勞動婦女節為中國的勞動婦女節日，婦女放半天假。1977年，第32屆聯合國大會決定把3月8日作為“聯合國婦女權益日和國際和平日”。

    International Women's Day (8 March) is an occasion marked by women's groups around the world. This date is also commemorated at the United Nations and is designated in many countries as a national holiday. When women on all continents, often divided by national boundaries and by ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic and political differences, come together to celebrate their Day, they can look back to a tradition that represents at least nine decades of struggle for equality, justice, peace and development.

    International Women's Day is the story of ordinary women as makers of history; it is rooted in the centuries-old struggle of women to participate in society on an equal footing with men. In ancient Greece, Lysistrata initiated a sexual strike against men in order to end war; during the French Revolution, Parisian women calling for "liberty, equality, fraternity" marched on Versailles to demand women's suffrage.

    The idea of an International Women's Day first arose at the turn of the century, which in the industrialized world was a period of expansion and turbulence, booming population growth and radical ideologies. Following is a brief chronology of the most important events:

    1909

    In accordance with a declaration by the Socialist Party of America, the first National Woman's Day was observed across the United States on 28 February. Women continued to celebrate it on the last Sunday of that month through 1913.

    1910

    The Socialist International, meeting in Copenhagen, established a Women's Day, international in character, to honour the movement for women's rights and to assist in achieving universal suffrage for women. The proposal was greeted with unanimous approval by the conference of over 100 women from 17 countries, which included the first three women elected to the Finnish parliament. No fixed date was selected for the observance.

    1911

    As a result of the decision taken at Copenhagen the previous year, International Women's Day was marked for the first time (19 March) in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland, where more than one million women and men attended rallies. In addition to the right to vote and to hold public office, they demanded the right to work, to vocational training and to an end to discrimination on the job.

    Less than a week later, on 25 March, the tragic Triangle Fire in New York City took the lives of more than 140 working girls, most of them Italian and Jewish immigrants. This event had a significant impact on labour legislation in the United States, and the working conditions leading up to the disaster were invoked during subsequent observances of International Women's Day.

    1913-1914

    As part of the peace movement brewing on the eve of World War I, Russian women observed their first International Women's Day on the last Sunday in February 1913. Elsewhere in Europe, on or around 8 March of the following year, women held rallies either to protest the war or to express solidarity with their sisters.

    1917

    With 2 million Russian soldiers dead in the war, Russian women again chose the last Sunday in February to strike for "bread and peace". Political leaders opposed the timing of the strike, but the women went on anyway. The rest is history: Four days later the Czar was forced to abdicate and the provisional Government granted women the right to vote. That historic Sunday fell on 23 February on the Julian calendar then in use in Russia, but on 8 March on the Gregorian calendar in use elsewhere.

    Since those early years, International Women's Day has assumed a new global dimension for women in developed and developing countries alike. The growing international women's movement, which has been strengthened by four global United Nations women's conferences, has helped make the commemoration a rallying point for coordinated efforts to demand women's rights and participation in the political and economic process. Increasingly, International Women's Day is a time to reflect on progress made, to call for change and to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women who have played an extraordinary role in the history of women's rights.

    The Role of the United NationsFew causes promoted by the United Nations have generated more intense and widespread support than the campaign to promote and protect the equal rights of women. The Charter of the United Nations, signed in San Francisco in 1945, was the first international agreement to proclaim gender equality as a fundamental human right. Since then, the Organization has helped create a historic legacy of internationally agreed strategies, standards, programmes and goals to advance the status of women worldwide.

    Over the years, United Nations action for the advancement of women has taken four clear directions: promotion of legal measures; mobilization of public opinion and international action; training and research, including the compilation of gender desegregated statistics; and direct assistance to disadvantaged groups. Today a central organizing principle of the work of the United Nations is that no enduring solution to society's most threatening social, economic and political problems can be found without the full participation, and the full empowerment, of the world's women.