Ariadne’s Clew is the first and only ascademic journal of gender studies in Estonia. It is an Estonian Women’s Studies and Resource Centre’s (ENUT) publication, appearing regularly since the year 2000.  Ariadne’s Clew presents articles in the fields of history, psychology, philosophy, religion, ethnology, health, folklore, literature, the arts, sociology, economics, political science, law, demography, pedagogy, geography, and natural sciences. 

Ariadne’s Clew can be borrowed from, or read at,  ENUT library, located at Narva Road 25-510, or at the other libraries in Estonia ester.ee, lugeja.ee.  The journal is for sale at ENUT and its last five numbers (2014-2019) are available digitally in the form of PDF files.

Excerpts from the Introduction in the journal’s first issue

Eda Sepp and Suzanne Lie

The journal’s name originates from Greek mythology.  Ariadne was the daughter of Cretan King Minos and Queen Pasiphae. She was in love with Theseus who had to go into the Labyrinth to slay the Minotaur.  She gave him a ball of yarn that would help him find his way out of the Labyrinth after slaying the Minotaur. The editors chose Ariadne’s clew to serve as a guide to democratic thinking and gender equality. Society includes both women and men and a democratic society is not possible without equality.  

Yarn has had an important role in Estonia’s national lore and by associating it with the journal, we wish to explore and find answers to our own problems.  Ancient Greece is the cradle of our cultural heritage whence we got the patriarchal social system as it exists.  That’s where we have to begin in order to know how gender equality started and to show what needs to be changed, and how to go about it.  Academic feminist theory has addressed these questions for over 30 years in the West by having women’s studies courses in the universities.  Women’s research, women’s studies and academic feminism are so closely connected that borders between them are frequently blurred.         

Ariadne’s Clew is the first journal in Estonia to address academic feminism, women’s and gender studies.  Ariadne’s Clew can serve as a forum where Estonian women and men introduce their research on gender related topics, feminist methodology, and to publish works based on the latter. We hope that the journal will stimulate the development of women’s studies in Estonia as well as inform the general public about relevant questions.  It is important to start addressing mainline scholarship that has been reached in the West.