Abstract

The study of the variables that influence the practice of sports activity in women provides valuable information for developing tactics which seek to encourage women to engage in sports. Previous studies clearly show that there are differences in practice based on gender; however, to date, research on physical sports activity (PSA) has revolved around studying the reasons why a person practices sport or not, without making gender distinctions. In this study, we focus on determining the importance of the inducing causes or variables analysed in the participants’ practice of physical activity. To obtain our results, an empirical comparison was undertaken to analyse the most determining variables of sports practice. To perform the comparison, the survey on sports habits of the Centre for Sociological Research (abbreviated CIS) was used, with a total of 8,925 respondents. The analysis of the results shows that variables like parents engaging in sports activities, women’s views on sports, the sports facilities available in the neighbourhood, the evaluation of the sports facilities as sufficient or not, age, job status, care of family members and use of free time all influence women’s practice of sports activities.