The winds of change are blowing as strong as ever for female entrepreneurs in the UAE.

The stereotypes that once relegated women to the sidelines of business have been washed away, with increasing numbers of executive roles being filled by females, and more and more groups, workshops and programmes being developed to encourage women into entrepreneurship.

One such platform is Ro’Ya, an initiative by the Dubai Business Women Council (DBWC) and MasterCard to, as they concisely put it, ‘empower and encourage budding female entrepreneurs in the UAE’.

Now in its second year, the inaugural programme in 2014 attracted women from across the Emirates to its series of workshops designed to advise, educate and inform participants as they start out on their journey to launch their own business.

Following the series of workshops, a gala dinner and grand final pitching event invited selected Ro’Ya participants to present their businesses in front of a panel of judges, with Nadia Wehbe emerging as winner with her children’s language concept Baby Arabia.

The 2015 programme opened last month, with registration running until the end of May, and as Nadine Halabi manager of business development at DBWB said, the class of 2015 can look forward to a much more targeted programme.