Print media institutions play multiple roles in contemporary societies. Through processes of selection, articulation and filtering, they define what counts as news, inform the public of significant events and shape audiences’ ideas, beliefs and identities (Fowler 1991). In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), newspapers have a tendency to highlight local achievements, and the empowerment of Emirati women is no exception. Thus, it is not unrealistic to assume that the stories published in local newspapers and the language through which women’s issues are framed contribute to constructing women’s social reality, their identity and the public attitude towards their empowerment. Like many institutions in the UAE, journalism seems to reproduce a state-sponsored ideology and linguistic expression: the frequent references to modernity, development, nation building, traditional values, the role of the youth and that of women are a case in point. Despite the extensive media coverage of Emirati women issues, little research is available on how local media depict Emirati women, women’s rights and women empowerment. To address this gap, this study examines the dominant women empowerment narrative in one local newspaper. Using an interdisciplinary approach that builds on the traditions and theories of media studies (Tuchman 1978; Goffman 1974; Entman 1993), critical linguistics (Fowler 1991; Bell 1991), critical discourse analysis (Van Dijk 1991; Fairclough 1995), and the dialogic thought of Bakhtin (1981), the paper argues that the print media is actively involved in disseminating a selective brand of ‘the ideal Emirati woman’ and that this brand is consistent with the nationally promoted ‘ideal citizen’. In particular, the paper analyses the dominant/repeated themes in the headlines and lead paragraphs of the media stories. Also, it examines agency through the analysis of the voices and sources embedded in these mediated texts. Furthermore, the paper examines the rhetorical devices used and their influence on the reader with special focus on lexical choices, repetition, slogans, re-contextualisation, and the number game (Van Dijk 1988). The data is drawn from Gulf News, a daily newspaper published in English in Dubai, from 1 January 2018 to 31 December 2018. The project will contribute to our understanding of how the discourse on women empowerment in the print media of an Arab/Islamic progressive nation compares to the same discourse elsewhere in the region and the world.