"Sign of the Times": Women get short end of script

It's as Polish as a bowl of bigos and Czźstochowa's Black Madonna, and about as popular as Adam Małysz ... when he's winning the gold. And while you'll find it in the vast majority of this country's homes, you'll be lucky if you ever clap eyes on it. "It" is of course, the monotoned voice of the ubiquitous "lektor." While most other Western European countries dub or subtitle foreign films and programs for television, Poland continues with the practice of using a solo male voice - the lektor. The lektor's role is to read the whole script over the top of the original dialogue, which is still quietly audible in the background. For the uninitiated, the lektor can turn TV viewing into a test of endurance. But in Poland the lektor's sonorous tones are king - and it is king because you'll never hear a female lektor reading a feature film in Poland; only the occasional wildlife program or documentary.

The reason? Everyone seems to think that women just aren't right for the job. While Polish women hold jobs in Parliament, fly planes and work as surgeons, the one territory that is out of bounds is being a movie lektor. "People are accustomed to men reading the voices and the broadcasters are worried that the public won't like to hear women doing it," said Krystyna Czubówna, one of Poland's most famous lektors, and one of only a handful of women lektors working in this close-knit industry. "I don't think that you will ever hear a female lektor reading a feature film in Poland and I don't think this needs to change," she said. "In feature films and action films, the vision is much more important than the sound and people don't want to hear emotional lektors so women are not suitable for this role. Men are more calm and their voices' soft." Czubówna, who laughingly describes herself as a "lektor dinosaur," is the only female lektor employed by Telewizja Polska (TVP). Czubówna fell into the industry by accident in the late 1970s after doing some radio work. She trained at Polish Radio to become a qualified lektor and speaker (a person who can read live-to-air broadcasts) and she has since also become the presenter of TVP's nightly news show, Panorama. When Czubówna started, she estimates that the ratio of male to female lektors was 4-to-1. "Now the ratio is even worse because people believe that the male voice is better and more convincing," she said. Czubówna added that many TV post-production studios that provide dubbing services do employ women lektors, but they are not willing to take the risk of using a female lektor on a feature film. It certainly hasn't happened yet at the HQ of rival broadcaster, TVN: It employs no female lektors.

Respect the viewer "It has always been a position occupied by men and everyone has gotten used to this," explained TVN spokesman Andrzej Sołtysik. "This is Poland and we should respect the viewers as they are." And the viewers don't like change. Sołtysik recalls reading about some research where Polish viewers were shown classic John Wayne westerns without the lektor, in their original English format. "And the viewers were very surprised to see that John Wayne didn't speak Polish," Sołtysik said. "They were used to watching these shows with a lektor and this was a real surprise." Post-production company, Studio Co., has three freelance female lektors on its books who get occasional work reading documentaries. Depending on the lektor, the average pay rate is zł. 18-zł. 20 per 10 minutes of program. "And the documentaries these women read are mostly about animals or they are on psychological or sociological issues," said a spokeswoman for Studio Company. "They would never do a military program, or something about cars or something technical. It just wouldn't happen because a man's voice sounds better for this type of program."

Dubbing - where individuals, usually actors, speak the roles of characters - is almost unheard of in Poland because, according to TVN's Andrzej Sołtysik, most past attempts have been unpopular with viewers and it is also expensive - it is at least 10 times more costly than a lektor. However, the government is considering recommendations from the National Broadcasting Council (KKRiT) that all children's films and television series be dubbed in the future. It's music to the ears of Magda Sołtyńska who, as vice general director of post-production company Start International Poland, is in charge of all film and television dubbing projects. "I would love to do more dubbing because it would mean more work for us and we can survive and we can be happy," Sołtyńska said. As for more work for female lektors, it looks like it's still a long way off. "I don't think we'll ever see women lektors reading feature films," said the spokeswoman for Studio Co. "I think because for so many years, people are used to having men on all features. "Me personally, I don't think I would like a female voice. I really can't tell you why; I just can't imagine it."