This article explains the french conceptualization of social relationship between sexes. It sets out the theoretical links between ways of action of this social relationship as gendered division of work, gendered division of power and gendered categorization on the one hand, and, on the other hand, its formal features: it has a cross-society, dynamic and antagonistic action. Illustrations of these features are done through author's surveys of family, domestic work, army as well gendered memory. The article makes explicit the choice of the author to use the concept of "social relationship between sexes" rather than "gender".
social relationship between sexes; men domination; gendered categorization; sociological theory; epistemology