In addition to choosing a new governor for the state, voters will be deciding today whether to amend the State of Iowa Constitution to include women.

Martha Isaacson, treasurer of the Campaign to Add Women to the State Constitution, said the proposal merely would add the words “and women” after the word “men” in the section of the constitution concerning inalienable rights.

Alissa Stoehr, chairwoman of this year’s Women’s Week and senior in liberal studies and women’s studies, said even though women have made progress in obtaining rights in Iowa, they need constitutional protection.

“A lot of people say that women have no problems in society anymore, but if that was true then there should be no problem putting women in the constitution,” Stoehr said. “This will just reinforce women’s rights in the state.”

Isaacson said amending the constitution to include women will just conclude a process that began 20 years ago.

“All Iowa code has been made gender neutral for 20 years now,” she said. “The one document left in line is the constitution.”

The effort to include women in the Iowa Constitution is not a new one. Attempts to ratify the amendment in 1989 and 1992 were turned down by Iowa voters.

Stoehr said there was a difference with this year’s campaign, however.

“Last time the amendment called for a big, long sentence to be added,” Stoehr said. “A lot of people read too far into the wording and thought that this would require Iowa to legalize gay marriages and unisex bathrooms and that sort of thing.

“When you talk about rights in too many words, people have a tendency to misinterpret the meaning of the words,” she said.

Stoehr said she knew of no organized opposition to the amendment anywhere throughout Iowa.

In contrast, the Add Women Campaign has been organized in its efforts. Isaacson said that more than 40 grass-roots local campaigns were formed to support the amendment’s passage.

“Our statewide group believed that efforts should begin at the local levels,” she said. “Our focus at the state level should be assisting local groups.”

Isaacson said the statewide campaign group had buttons and T-shirts made up for many of the local groups. The statewide group also purchased advertisement time for many of the small local campaigns.

“We raised thousands and thousands of dollars to run small ads in local shoppers and purchase local radio spots that feature former Gov. Robert Ray,” Isaacson said.

Isaacson said Ray has been a long-time supporter of equal rights for women, and he has supported every attempt at amending the Iowa Constitution to include women.

In the Ames area, Stoehr said the campaigning efforts have been mostly focused on getting voters to the polls.

“Our focus has been to just get people out on Nov. 3 and vote,” she said. “Also, we’ve been instructing people to make sure they turn their ballots over because the amendments are on the back.”

Isaacson anticipates a rousing success at the polls tonight.

“We know of no opposition to the amendment,” she said. “I anticipate that voters will really support this amendment.”