Behavioral Patterns of Women Who Employ Their Leisure Time in Sports Activities: An Application of the Football Branch

This study is conducted to reveal the role of gender in attending leisure time activities and to determine gender perceptions about sports branches. For this purpose, an application was performed with the participation of 7 female students from Abant Izzet Baysal University School of Physical Education and Sport. For 8 weeks, volunteer participants saw home-field football matches of Boluspor Football Team, playing in the First League of Turkish Football Federation. Focus group discussions were conducted with the participants both before and after the application. The research was based on qualitative method, and the data of the research was analyzed via NVIVO 10 program. It is detected that the participants had negative perceptions about attending a football match before the application, but this transformed into a positive perception after the application. Participants emphasized that there were some obstacles in front of women in attending leisure time activities, yet argued that these obstacles could disappear with increased participation. Participants also remarked that negative perception shared by the people in their close circles about seeing football matches transformed into positive perception after the application. Moreover, participants stated that attending leisure time activities strengthened socialization and communication