Concerned Women for America

Concerned Women for America (CWA) is a right-wing Christian women's public policy organization, founded in 1979 by Beverly LaHaye, in San Diego, California. It is one of the largest and most influential Christian Right organizations, alongside the Christian Coalition and the Family Research Council. CWA, currently led by President Wendy Wright, has since [Page 158]grown to 500,000 members and is headquartered in Washington, D.C. Although primarily a women's organization, CWA welcomes support from men who share the organization's values. CWA's Web site states that its mission is “to protect and promote Biblical values among all citizens—first through prayer, then education, and finally by influencing our society— thereby reversing the decline in moral values in our nation.” To this end, CWA focuses upon six core issues that they consider to be of high significance to American citizens: family, sanctity of human life, education, pornography, religious liberty, and national sovereignty.

These core issues are reflected in CWA's campaigns and lobbying. CWA advocates the heterosexual nuclear family as the ideal environment in which to raise children and is therefore strongly opposed to gay marriage. Consequently, CWA has placed great emphasis upon upholding the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). CWA believes that men and women are naturally destined to adopt different roles in the family, and they express concern about attempts that have been made to challenge these natural roles. Because of these views, CWA is concerned about the threat that radical feminism poses to traditional family values, and they oppose the promotion of radical feminist perspectives, particularly among young women. CWA campaigns against any attempts to intervene with natural human life and is therefore opposed to abortion and euthanasia. CWA also campaigns against representations of sex and violence on television and promotes the rights of parents to determine what kind of education their children receive, particularly with respect to their exposure to sex education. CWA especially condemns organizations such as Planned Parenthood that provide safer-sex advice and make contraception accessible to teenagers. Instead, they advocate abstinence-only sex education programs.

CWA produces the magazine Family Voice for its members, in addition to hosting a daily radio show called Concerned Women Today. Through these media, members of CWA and those who share similar values are urged to lobby senators. The high rates of response that these calls for action receive mean that CWA's influence should not be underestimated when it comes to its capacity to influence law and policy.