The article questions the use of universal categories in analyzing social phenomena and proposes that the significances of such categories be placed into a historical and cultural context. The basis for this discussion is a criticism of the concept of the neutral, universal individual who, through the ideas of equality and autonomy forms the axis of modern Western values. The main argument is that the ideas of equality and autonomy have historically gained shape as attributes of the male sex. This is because the genesis of the modern individual precluded an egalitarian expression of sexual difference, which instead found translation in a sex-assigned dichotomy between the public and the private spheres. Women are now breaking the boundaries of this dichotomy as part of the emergence of new social subjects, who have placed the idea of "difference" on the contemporary political/cultural agenda. Drawing support from a number of authors, the article moves on to discuss the need to overcome the theoretical and political dilemma that reduces the complexity of social relations to dichotomous polarities. Lastly, from this perspective it is shown how the gender hierarchy manifest in the public/private dichotomy and in the concept of the neutral individual is related to certain types of iniquities in the realm of health care.