diff --git a/python/pyarrow/array.pxi b/python/pyarrow/array.pxi
index b7f3a46f9e14..ecdbb342d3e2 100644
--- a/python/pyarrow/array.pxi
+++ b/python/pyarrow/array.pxi
@@ -356,8 +356,8 @@ def array(object obj, type=None, mask=None, size=None, from_pandas=None,
                 values.codes, mask, index_type, memory_pool)
             try:
                 dictionary = array(
-                    values.categories.values, type=value_type,
-                    memory_pool=memory_pool)
+                    values.categories, type=value_type,
+                    from_pandas=True, memory_pool=memory_pool)
             except TypeError:
                 # TODO when removing the deprecation warning, this whole
                 # try/except can be removed (to bubble the TypeError of
@@ -371,7 +371,8 @@ def array(object obj, type=None, mask=None, size=None, from_pandas=None,
                         "TypeError",
                         FutureWarning, stacklevel=2)
                     dictionary = array(
-                        values.categories.values, memory_pool=memory_pool)
+                        values.categories, from_pandas=True,
+                        memory_pool=memory_pool)
                 else:
                     raise
 
diff --git a/python/pyarrow/tests/test_pandas.py b/python/pyarrow/tests/test_pandas.py
index 0339975f4571..063532140c6e 100644
--- a/python/pyarrow/tests/test_pandas.py
+++ b/python/pyarrow/tests/test_pandas.py
@@ -3047,6 +3047,15 @@ def test_all_none_category(self):
         df['a'] = df['a'].astype('category')
         _check_pandas_roundtrip(df)
 
+    def test_categorical_with_timezone(self):
+        # GH-49875: timezone was dropped when converting tz-aware categorical
+        cats = pd.DatetimeIndex(["2024-01-01", "2024-01-02"]).tz_localize("US/Eastern")
+        cat = pd.Categorical(values=[cats[0], cats[1], cats[0]], categories=cats)
+
+        arr = pa.array(cat, from_pandas=True)
+
+        assert arr.type.value_type.tz == "US/Eastern"
+
     def test_empty_arrays(self):
         for dtype_str, pa_type in self.type_pairs:
             if (Version(pd.__version__) >= Version("3.0.0") and