[This story follows my series, A Very Shameful Punishment, featuring the saga of Eleanor from her initial conviction and punishment to her success both as a creative professional and in her personal life. Readers will likely find this story more enjoyable if they have read previous series first, but Ch. 34 of that series begins with a quick summary. These stories include subjects such as bodily functions and sometimes severe discipline. Those who do not want to read about those topics should read no further. All characters are over 18.]
Looking back later, Eleanor realized that there had been a gradual rise in demand by women in the Women's Republic for a society in which women were able to assert their authority more directly over men. The men still committed offenses by refusing to accept that the Republic was dedicated to treating women totally on an equal basis with the previously dominant men. As a result, the female leadership of the Republic were facing demands to take steps now to elevate the position of women.
Now the leaders of the legislative bodies, who were of course women, responded to this broad call for reform with new legislation increasing the authority of the women in their domestic sphere as well as society generally. Up until now, women were empowered to send husbands, sons, and brothers to be re-educated at both camps and local centers. Both were operated by the Correctional Service, a quasi-military agency whose officers and noncoms ran the re-education camps as strict military-style training locations.
Men were sent by the women in their lives after the men had committed some offense against the woman who filed the request for training. The usually attractive sergeants at the camps treated the trainees as offenders who needed correction and retraining to learn to behave properly in the Women's Republic. Eleanor had sent her former husband Jackson to both one of the camps and later to a local re-education center. He had been subjected to the discipline imposed by the blonde SGT Denise, who was later invited to live with Eleanor in her spacious apartment when she had been assigned to a nearby re-education center.
Eleanor could afford the well-appointed flat because she was now the major creative force at the highly successful women-owned company Goose Cookers, which designed and produced distinctive women's wear and products. The company was really run by Janet, who as executive vice president directed all parts of the company but preferred to keep a low profile while she installed capable women as Chief Executive Officer and Chairwoman.
The new legislation introduced by President of the Republic Vivian extended female authority. Vivian had initially resisted the changes because she in some ways wanted to preserve some traditions and relationships, but the continuing trend of men abusing their wives, female relatives, and associates persuaded her that firm action was needed.
Under the new rules, women could still send their husbands, sons, or brothers to re-education centers or re-training camps; they usually were sent to a camp for two or three weeks. Women had been presented when they married with a marital cane that they could use when they felt their husbands had behaved badly toward them. While strengthening the penal statutes governing abuse of women by men, the new law allowed women to discipline their husbands, sons, or brothers entirely in their wise discretion.
Although women were now totally able to impose discipline on their men on their own, the re-education centers were to be expanded to provide a setting where women could bring their husbands, sons, or brothers who had misbehaved to be disciplined publicly. Platforms were constructed in front of the centers with spanking benches and caning horses. Soon men were being brought by women to these spots, where one of the Correctional Service noncoms would on request bind the man to the caning horse and lower his trousers and underpants to receive the cane on his bare bottom. Alternatively, the man's trousers and underpants would be pulled down and he would be ordered to lie across the woman's lap to receive a spanking in front of what was usually a crowd of cheering women.
The statute also required all men to register with the Correctional Service when they reached the age of 18. They were then sent for a week's initial training in learning to respect women. Following that, they were issued punishment uniforms, which had been designed, initially by a team at Goose Cookers headed by Eleanor, to humiliate the man wearing one.
The uniform came in two designs—one featured a short, flared skirt, worn over white patterned bloomers, with a white translucent blouse covering which exposed a training bra, with either little white socks or yellow thigh-his and sandals with straps and a low heel. The second version had an even shorter skirt which was worn with pink hi-cut panties. The skirts were short enough so that wearers could not keep from exposing either their panties or bloomers.
Even though the panties disclosed more skin, men regarded the bloomers as more embarrassing. This could be related to the possible added punishment of requiring the man wearing the bloomers to have a diaper on beneath them. Women were offered a range of butt plugs they could request from the centers. There were also special panties available to women who felt they needed more severe punishment wear for their men. These panties were equipped with vinyl rings and a small lock that effectively prevented the wearer from removing the panties until the lock was opened by the woman who held the key.
Men already feared these panties in particular because women were able to refuse pleas for the panties to be unlocked to permit toilet use. Women were advised not to delay men's urination or defecation so that the panties were soiled, but there were no prescribed time limits for men to be locked in them. Most women responded to male requests to be allowed to use the toilet, but just the prospect of that privilege being taken away was enough to inspire great fright among men in the Republic.
When a woman reached the age of 18, she became eligible to assume the status of "responsible woman." Every man in the Republic was assigned a responsible woman who could order him to wear a punishment uniform and could discipline him in the home, at the public site in front of the re-education center, or anywhere at all.
Women could respond, for example, to bad behavior by a man for whom they were responsible, by having him pull down his pants and lie across her lap in a restaurant for an impromptu spanking. Some restaurants or clothing stores had punishment stands where women could spank or cane men accompanying them. Waitresses or store saleswomen were also trained to impose discipline on men presented to them in those places by the responsible women.
Usually, the responsible woman was the wife if the man was married. It should be recalled that women were permitted to marry both one man and one woman. If a woman had both a wife and a husband, her wife could act as responsible woman in the absence of the woman married to the man. If a man were unmarried, as most were at 18, his mother became the responsible woman but could assign her authority to her daughter or to the mother's sister. The assignment could be for the imposition of a single, prescribed punishment or could be a general assignment, allowing the daughter or sister to decide on punishing the man in their own discretion.
It was thus possible for a father in his 40s or older to be subjected to the authority of his 18-year-old daughter if her mother chose to allow her this authority on each occasion or indefinitely. Eleanor, when still married to Jackson but living in the capital city while he remained in the second city living with her sister Meredith, delegated disciplinary authority over Jackson to her sister. This worked out well because it continued after Eleanor divorced Jackson and he soon married Meredith.
