Historically, female entrepreneurs have faced more challenges in the startup landscape, tasked with competing with male entrepreneurs for investment dollars and industry recognition. A 2014 report from Babson College found that less than 3 percent of venture capital-funded businesses had women at the helm.

Fortunately, the landscape continues to change and there is an increasing number of opportunities available to women in business today. This support is helping level the playing field for female entrepreneurs, making it easier for new business owners to follow. Here are three organizations leading the way, helping make gender inequality in entrepreneurship a thing of the past.

The Audience Awards.

One area females stand to excel is in filmmaking. Women are still highly underrepresented in the highly-competitive movie making business, despite the fact that they may have a better ability to connect with female moviegoers. The Audience Awards addresses the disparity of women in film through three major methods.

• The Doc Challenge: This timed filmmaking competition gives participants the opportunity to put together a movie in a short timeframe, have that film premiere at a large film festival, win cash, and possibly receive television distribution deals. For the past three years, the directors of the winning films have been women.
• Women on Film Short Film Competition: This annual competition highlights and celebrates female directors.
• The Makers: This reality show, currently being pitched, is produced by a team of women.

Founder Paige Williams created The Audience Awards in June of 2013, just five months after Women in Film and the Sundance Institute released a report showing how underrepresented women are in the filmmaking industry. “I started the company because all filmmakers needed a platform to find and connect with their audience & drive engagement to their films,” Williams said.

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