The IO provided basic and secondary education (5th to 12th grades), both in the boarding school and day-school regimes.
The institution was created in 1900, by the initiative of Prince Alfonse, brother of King Charles I of Portugal, with the objective of educating the daughters of the officers of the Portuguese Army and Navy.
Initially, it was named Instituto Infante Dom Afonso (Prince Alfonse Institute).
In 1910, it was renamed Instituto Torre e Espada (Tower and Sword Institute) and, in 1911, Instituto Feminino de Educação e Trabalho (Feminine Institute of Education and Labor).
In a controversial decision taken in 2013, the Minister of National Defense José Pedro Aguiar-Branco ordered in the closing of the IO in the end of the school year of 2014/2015.