Industrialization is considered to be an important catalyst in promoting economic development. Recently, the government of Tanzania has declared industrialization as an important theme that will drive the country to a middle-income economy. As a result, the sector has grown and is currently contributing 25% of the country’s GDP. However, women and youth participation in industrialization is not well articulated. By employing the Empowerment theory, this study assessed women and youth participation in industrialization theme in Tanzania. A mixed method approach was applied. Data were collected from women and youth owners of industries in Morogoro Municipal council and Dodoma City council, Tanzania. Purposive and simple random sampling were used to select industries and respondents. The data were analyzed using Multiple Regression and content analysis techniques. The results proved that women and youth participate in implementing industrialization theme in various sectors including; manufacturing, textile, food processing, metal fabrication, distilleries and glass works. Further, findings indicated that women dominate in the textile and distilleries while men dominate in the manufacturing, food processing, metal fabrication, and glass works. Despite this participation, a number of challenges were cited as hinderances to their effective participation including; inadequacy of capital, skills and market. The findings also portray that the three factors locus of control, self-esteem and self-efficacy were associated with women and youth participation. However, self-esteem and self-efficacy had positive association but were not significant, while locus of control had a negative association which was significant. Therefore, the participation of women and youth in industrialization is not a result of internal factors rather external forces. This may provide insights to stakeholders to come up with strategies that enhance women and youth optimum participation in the industrialization theme in Tanzania.