The school was founded by the well off intellectual apothecary Carl Göransson, who was active in Stockholm but was raised in Askersund.
The school was not founded for economic reasons, but out of discontent over the education of females, which was at the time a debated issue in intellectual circles, and the school's program was at the time a unique innovation in Sweden.
The principal, however, was always to be female: she was to function as teacher in practical household education and moral subjects, and guard the students.
At the time of the introduction of the compulsory elementary school in Sweden in 1842, only five schools in Sweden provided academic secondary education to females: the others being Societetsskolan (1786), Fruntimmersföreningens flickskola (1815) and Kjellbergska flickskolan (1833) in Gothenburg, and Wallinska skolan (1831) in Stockholm.
Of these five schools, Askersunds flickskola and Wallinska skolan were considered to offer the highest academic quality to their students.