Time traveling through women's history, one era at a time.

Mid-19th century America was a pretty buttoned-up place. Or was it?

For women, marriage and family was their destiny, their lives confined to a small and private sphere. They could toil, but they couldn’t vote; they could work their land, but often couldn’t own it. They were laced into corsets, surrounded by a piece of clothing called a cage.

The whole thing sounds pretty...constricting. But women in this era did plenty of fascinating things, both within the boundaries of polite society and well outside of them. That was especially true when the Civil War broke out in 1861. War has as way of rewriting the rules of engagement. In a divided country, many women found themselves driven, and inspired, to become more than they were told they were supposed to be.

Let's step into a day in the life of an upper- to middle-class, city-dwelling lady and discover what it might be like to walk in her shoes. We will explore a wide range of topics, from what underwear you might be wearing, how you might go about washing your hair, and what exactly a crinoline cage is to courtship rituals, women's suffrage, the potential absurdity of your wedding night, and having children in 19th-century America. We'll also talk about how the Civil War changed things for women: how it complicated their lives, but also opened doors to a whole new world.

The soldiers called them angels, but they were warriors: They battled bullets, disease, terrible medical knowledge, and the belief that they didn't belong out in the public sphere. Join us as we explore the life, trials, and triumphs of a Civil War nurse.

She was many things: A celebrated teacher, a pioneering civil servant, a battlefield nurse, a public speaker, and a leader of many initiatives, including the American Red Cross. In a time when single, middle-class women didn't have all that many career options, Clara Barton went ahead and had, oh, let's call it five different careers. This dynamo was a woman of many contradictions: she was incredibly shy, but also brazen in her pursuit of her goals; she was anxious and insecure, but also sure and steady. This "Angel of the Battlefield" was a whole lot more dynamic, and more complicated, than you think. Let's reexamine the life of this fascinating character.

Look for the word 'prostitute' in 19th-century America and you'll find it everywhere. But it went far beyond a job description: It was a line in the sand, a punishment for women who dared to step across and act out of line in the public sphere. Let's step behind the velvet curtain of sex in the Victorian era and look at how 19th-century ladies related to it, their bodies, and themselves as sexual beings. We'll explore the lives of prostitutes as well as your everyday lady, from how to find mail-order contraception to steamy pieces of correspondence, and what happens to women's sex lives - for better and worse - during the war. Let's go traveling.

When we think of a Civil War soldier, it's a man we see. But there were women out there on the battlefield, too - hundreds of them - fighting and dying for their cause. Let's travel back into the life of a secret lady soldier to find out why they joined, how they hid their identities, what they faced out in the field, how they were caught and what happened when they were. We'll explore their legacy and impact in their era and how they were almost completely written out of our history books.

Franklin Thompson did it all as a Civil War soldier: spied, rode, nursed, and fought. And during his service, almost no one knew his secret: that he was really Sarah Emma Edmonds in disguise. Emma left home in Canada at 17 to escape a life she didn't want, living as a man so she could make her own way in the world. When the American Civil War came, she felt called to join up and fight for the Union. She had many adventures as a soldier and spy, then went on to write a best-selling book about it all. Twenty years later, she fought another kind of battle: one for a soldier's pension, becoming one of the first women to be granted one. Let's explore the life and adventurous times of this fascinating unsung hero.

19th-century women weren't supposed to be devious - and that's what made them such effective spies. Hundreds of women tied gun parts to their crinolines, baked quinine into bread loaves, hid generals in their attics, and made daring midnight rides for their cause. In this episode, we follow four of them: Union ladies Elizabeth Van Lew and Mary Jane Bowser and Confederate dames Rose O'Neal Greenhow and Bell Boyd. They flirted, tricked, and cajoled the men around them, using their prejudice about a woman's place to achieve outrageous feats of courage and ingenuity. You won't believe what they did, and what they risked, to do their part for the conflict raging all around them.