The results of the project contribute to the existing historiography by providing a systematic analysis of the role of gender ambiguity in the construction of psychological categories of intelligence and genius. While previous research has examined gender bias in science, this project places particular emphasis on how figures such as androgyny and hermaphroditism were used within scientific explanations. Rather than treating them as marginal or anomalous, the analysis shows that they played a constitutive role in shaping psychological interpretations of intellectual hierarchy. This perspective allows for a more precise understanding of how gender operated within knowledge production as a site of conceptual tension and not only as a source of exclusion.
The project moved beyond existing scholarship in three ways. In Spain, "genius" was less prevalent than elsewhere in Europe: the figure of the intellectual was used more frequently, it was still shaped by biological predisposition and gender ambiguity but understood primarily through social influence. Gender operated as a persistent organising principle: women of exceptional ability were conceptualised as masculinised. Finally, characteristics otherwise constructed as deviant such as non-normative sexual orientation, suspected infertility, or the rejection of marriage, were reframed as tolerable under the category of genius, which suspended normative expectations around gender and sexuality.
The project also contributes to current discussions on gender by discussing assumptions of binarism, intellectual ability, and merit within a historical context rather than being neutral or universal categories. By reconstructing the epistemic contexts in which these ideas were formulated, the research supports a critical reassessment of the relationship between scientific knowledge, authority, and social hierarchy.
These findings are relevant for contemporary debates in education, science policy, and gender equality initiatives, as they provide historically grounded evidence of how scientific frameworks have contributed to shaping and legitimising gendered inequalities. By emphasising the contingency of these frameworks, the project offers analytical tools for reconsidering present-day assumptions about merit, ability, and expertise in more inclusive terms
