An Assessment of Women and Youth Participation in Implementing the Industrialization Theme in Tanzania

Industrialization is 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 and Dodoma City councils, Tanzania. Purposive and simple random sampling were used to select industries and respondents. 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.