Parity Violation and Standard Model Tests

We discuss the status and prospects of an experimental program of parity-violating asymmetry measurements in the scattering of longitudinally polarized electrons off unpolarized electrons and nucleons. In particular, we focus on those measurements where judicious choices of target and kinematics makes the theoretical predictions dependent purely on fundamental electroweak couplings. If such asymmetries are measured with sufficient precision, they are sensitive to new physics at the TeV scale. The physics implications of recent results, experiments under construction and plans for the future are discussed.