Abstract
Feminisms in International Relations have been characterized by a schism between critical and empiricist epistemologies, with implications for feminists' explanatory practices. In this article, I argue that this apparent schism dissolves when we recover feminist ontologies vis-à-vis constitutive and causal explanations. In this process, I discuss the idea of causal powers to demonstrate the interrelationship between constitution and causality, and reconfigure the debate about explanation within feminist IR. I conclude that feminist explanation is simultaneously constitutive and causal, which is articulated by the ontology of causal powers.
Causality; Constitution; Feminist international relations