Strive Women: Her Business, Her Financial Future

Three women, two of whom are wearing vests, stand together with their arms crossed in a store aisle.

Strive Women works with growth-oriented women entrepreneurs to grow their businesses, increase their confidence and control, build financial resilience, and improve their quality of life. The program addresses key challenges like limited access to finance, digital tools, and childcare while building a supportive ecosystem that will last beyond the scope of the project.

Overview

Strive Women is a four-year program led by CARE and supported by the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth. It strengthens the financial health of women-led small businesses in Pakistan, Peru, and Vietnam. These businesses are vital to their economies, communities, and households, yet often face significant barriers.

In partnership with local organizations, Strive Women designs and delivers financial tools, training, and support tailored to women’s needs. Our work includes:

  • Co-designing financial products for women-led small businesses
  • Strengthening peer networks and providing mentoring opportunities
  • Building women’s digital and business skills
  • Promoting sustainable business practices
  • Piloting solutions to childcare challenges

By 2027, Strive Women will directly support over 300,000 entrepreneurs and will reach over 6 million people through outreach campaigns.

Our entrepreneurs

Strive Women supports micro and small enterprises that:

  • Are led by women (at least 70%)
  • Have at least two employees
  • Have been in business for at least two years
  • Are growth oriented: have goals to grow their business and have taken steps to achieve them (75%)

Strive Women demographic profiles

Pakistan

• Married or cohabiting: 65%

• Average age: 34

• Average number of children: 3+

• Average number of years in business: 5.69

• Average monthly revenue: $108 USD

Peru

• Married or cohabiting: 53%

• Average age: 42

• Average number of children: <1

• Average number of years in business: 6.8

• Average monthly revenue: $540 USD

Vietnam

• Married or cohabiting: 92%

• Average age: 42

• Average number of children: 1-2

• Average number of years in business: 10.61

• Average monthly revenue: $2,400 USD

A focus on financial health 

Success is not only about increasing income or gaining access to credit. It also requires the confidence, tools, and support to effectively manage a business, recover from financial setbacks, and make informed decisions that align with personal and professional goals. It requires both present-day stability and the capacity to plan for and invest in the future. 

To that end, CARE is developing an innovative and practical framework to measure financial health for women entrepreneurs that captures the complexity of their experiences. This framework guides the design of our programming and serves as a foundation for how we measure impact.

Our approach is grounded in four key pillars:

Financial resilience

The ability of women entrepreneurs to prepare for, withstand, and recover from shocks.

Business management and growth

The ability of women entrepreneurs to use proactive strategies and tools to manage and grow their businesses.

Confidence and control

Confidence in one’s ability to manage and grow a business.

Quality of life

The ability to balance business, household, and financial responsibilities.

What we’re finding

Our research shows that women entrepreneurs in the Strive Women program have strong foundations in business management skills, but long-term growth depends on both strengthening these skills and removing external barriers such as limited access to finance, restrictive social norms, and unequal caregiving responsibilities.

  • About half of women entrepreneurs could access the necessary capital to keep their businesses afloat after a financial setback, but few have business-specific savings and would instead rely on borrowing.
  • One in three entrepreneurs do not keep records for their business.
  • 51% of entrepreneurs use online or digital tools for their businesses.
  • 47% of entrepreneurs have daily care responsibilities. Competing household, financial, and business responsibilities affect their qualities of life and business outcomes.

Join our community of practice

Be part of a growing network of practitioners, innovators, and advocates advancing women’s entrepreneurship around the world. Connect, share insights, and collaborate to drive inclusive solutions that empower women-led businesses to thrive.

Join CARE Women’s Entrepreneurship Community of Practice on LinkedIn
Mastercard Strive

Strive Women is part of Mastercard Strive, a global portfolio of philanthropic programs aimed at helping small businesses around the world thrive in the digital economy. The program is implemented by CARE, supported by the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, and funded with a $9 million USD investment from the Mastercard Impact Fund.