Profile
Ursula Chyba
Birth:
1961
Training Location(s):
Diploma, University of Vienna (1980)
DSA (Certified social worker), Academy for Social Work Vienna-Floridsdorf (1990)
Primary Affiliation(s):
Co-founder Mädchenberatung - Girls' counseling for sexually abused girls and young women, Vienna (since 1990)
Women's Shelter Vienna (1988- 1991)
Career Focus:
Girls' counseling, feminist social work, psychosocial trial support, sexualized violence against girls and young women, women's shelter
Biography
Ursula Chyba is an Austrian feminist social worker and the co-founder of the Mädchenberatung in Vienna. Chyba co-founded the Mädchenberatung - Girls' counseling center for sexually abused girls and young women - together with Christine Bodendorfer and Sabine Rupp to close a gap in the Viennese counseling landscape, played a key role in establishing the right to psychosocial trial support in Austria for those affected by violence, and has been continuously campaigning for girls and women's rights as a feminist social worker for over 45 years.
Having grown up with strong female figures, Chyba experienced in her youth how the men in the family nevertheless always had the last word, which "seemed quite nonsensical as a child." This dynamic fueled her strong need for justice. Chyba decided to leave her family of origin as early as possible, which seemed most feasible to her via the "traditional route" of "quick marriage and motherhood". However, at the age of 18, Chyba was not yet considered an adult, which is why her father had to agree to the marriage - an infantilization that still infuriates Chyba today. The birth of her first child a short time later also made Chyba realize how disadvantaged women were in many areas of society, and she had to fight for her son to be registered in her passport (not her then-husband's). For Chyba, these key moments were decisive for her becoming a feminist activist: "Those were two very drastic experiences where I thought to myself 'No, I can't stand this. I have to do something about this'."
As a result, Chyba began to engage more intensively with feminist theory and to gain an overview of the situation of women in Vienna and Austria. Inspired by her mother's teaching profession, Chyba initially wanted to become a teacher to contribute to developing girls' self-confidence and convey the importance of education to them. In 1980, she began studying education at the University of Vienna, which she soon discontinued in favor of social work. Chyba wanted to tackle the effects of gender inequality directly and support girls in emergencies. In 1987, Chyba began studying social work at the Academy for Social Work in Vienna-Floridsdorf and "has been a feminist social worker ever since." Shortly afterwards, she separated from her then-husband and became a single mother to her children.
During her time at the Social Academy, Ursula Chyba met two like-minded women, Christine Bodendorfer and Sabine Rupp, with whom she worked in a project group on feminist social work. From then on, she pursued her goals together with the two of them: "And then we thought about it: Feminist work. That will be our life". It was the time of the founding of the first women's shelter in Vienna and the first women's counseling center Frauen beraten Frauen. The three women noticed that there was a lack of similar low-threshold counseling services for girls affected by sexual violence, and they took it upon themselves to close this gap: "We have to do that. We have to set that up. The women's shelter has also succeeded in doing this, as has the women's counseling center. That's what we need! The three of us were horrified: There's nothing. There is nothing in Austria that is aimed exclusively at victims of sexual violence."
After graduating from the Academy of Social Work and as a continuation of their joint project work, Chyba and her colleagues founded Vienna's first girls' counselling centre, Mädchenberatung, in 1990, which specialized in the needs of sexually abused girls and young women. The girls' counseling service began in a small tobacconist's, which the group had taken over from the Viennese Association Notruf (see also Melitta Nicponsky). In the beginning, the financial situation of the counseling center was "highly challenging", and the founders (and only female employees at the time) sometimes worked for months without pay. Nonetheless, Chyba found it inspiring that there were many like-minded feminists locally and internationally who were campaigning against violence against women and girls, and she experienced how their strength became more potent together.
In parallel to setting up the girls' counseling service, Chyba also worked in one of Vienna's women's shelters and helped with its establishment. She started there as a trainee in 1988 and eventually took over as a substitute on maternity leave. As her motivation was always to support victims of violence and actively contribute to social change, her work at the Viennese women's shelter was "significant and very educational."
Ursula Chyba has dedicated her entire professional life to working with women and girls affected by violence. Her work focuses on individual resources and potential. It builds positive self-esteem: "Of course, I like to support them against injustice and accompany them through this whole court, police and authority jungle. But there is something incredibly beautiful about working with girls and women when they initially come with very low self-esteem and massive feelings of guilt and then develop into a self-assertive person. And that's exactly why I like doing it so much." Chyba experiences it as a great gift when clients still contact her years after the counseling sessions and report on their further development.
Another important achievement, which is closely linked to the history of the Girls' Counseling Center, is the development of psychosocial trial support. Until 1998, when Chyba and her colleagues conceived of it as court accompaniment, the counselors accompanied women and girls to court hearings by making use of the fact that trusted persons of victims were allowed to attend court. In 2000, the Austrian Minister of Justice at the time, Dr. Böhmdorfer, initiated a pilot project to officially introduce psychosocial trial support and secure it in law. The Girls' Counseling Center and the Tamar Counseling Center (see also Hedwig Pepelnik-Gründler and Esther Hutfless) were involved in the project and the development of psychosocial trial support from the very beginning. In 2006, the right to psychosocial trial support was introduced into Austrian law as part of a criminal law reform. As a result of the reform, since then, "every person affected by violence in Austria has the right to psychosocial and legal trial support". Victims and their relatives have the right to psychosocial support during ongoing investigations and court proceedings, as well as professional support in preparing for and dealing with these.
In the interview, Chyba emphasized that the legal formalization led to a noticeable improvement in her day-to-day work: "This has given us a different status in court, and we are also legally recognized as legal advisors ever since. The gentlemen in court, and nowadays also gentlewomen in court, can not oppose as much." At the same time, Chyba emphasizes the importance of cooperation and good collaboration in this context and notes that psychosocial trial support is now widely appreciated in criminal proceedings.
In the interview, Chyba expresses her concerns about the current shift to the political right in Austria and Europe. Although she herself has fought many battles with ministries over the years to secure recognition of her work and subsidies and jobs, she notes that "it was easier in 2010 than in 2020" to accommodate feminist concepts in institutions.
Chyba is proud of the successful establishment of the Mädchenberatung girls' counseling center in the psychosocial counseling landscape in Vienna and the successful generational change in its own ranks. After founding the counseling center, the co-founders ran the team on their own for ten years before they were able to finance another employee: "We were a very fossilized team. We were the only team in Austria that lasted all those years. We were three co-founders for 10 years and then managed to get a fourth employee on board, and nothing changed until 2019." Since the extensive organizational and personnel restructuring at the counseling center in 2020, Chyba is now the last co-founder of the new team, which includes Katharina Werner, Lisa Schubert, and Stefanie Dorotka. For Chyba, working in a multi-generational team is a great pleasure, and she describes how her feminist attitude has constantly evolved over time.
The girls' counseling center Mädchenberatung is Ursula Chyba's life's work. Even though she might already be retired at the time of the interview, Chyba is clear: "Knowledge makes you strong. The day when I no longer want to know is still very far away."
By Emelie Rack (2024)
To cite this article, see Credits
Selected Works
By and about Ursula Chyba
Chyba, U. (2023, May 8). Interview with Emelie Rack [Audio Recording].
Ursula Chyba
Birth:
1961
Training Location(s):
Diploma, University of Vienna (1980)
DSA (Certified social worker), Academy for Social Work Vienna-Floridsdorf (1990)
Primary Affiliation(s):
Co-founder Mädchenberatung - Girls' counseling for sexually abused girls and young women, Vienna (since 1990)
Women's Shelter Vienna (1988- 1991)
Career Focus:
Girls' counseling, feminist social work, psychosocial trial support, sexualized violence against girls and young women, women's shelter
Biography
Ursula Chyba is an Austrian feminist social worker and the co-founder of the Mädchenberatung in Vienna. Chyba co-founded the Mädchenberatung - Girls' counseling center for sexually abused girls and young women - together with Christine Bodendorfer and Sabine Rupp to close a gap in the Viennese counseling landscape, played a key role in establishing the right to psychosocial trial support in Austria for those affected by violence, and has been continuously campaigning for girls and women's rights as a feminist social worker for over 45 years.
Having grown up with strong female figures, Chyba experienced in her youth how the men in the family nevertheless always had the last word, which "seemed quite nonsensical as a child." This dynamic fueled her strong need for justice. Chyba decided to leave her family of origin as early as possible, which seemed most feasible to her via the "traditional route" of "quick marriage and motherhood". However, at the age of 18, Chyba was not yet considered an adult, which is why her father had to agree to the marriage - an infantilization that still infuriates Chyba today. The birth of her first child a short time later also made Chyba realize how disadvantaged women were in many areas of society, and she had to fight for her son to be registered in her passport (not her then-husband's). For Chyba, these key moments were decisive for her becoming a feminist activist: "Those were two very drastic experiences where I thought to myself 'No, I can't stand this. I have to do something about this'."
As a result, Chyba began to engage more intensively with feminist theory and to gain an overview of the situation of women in Vienna and Austria. Inspired by her mother's teaching profession, Chyba initially wanted to become a teacher to contribute to developing girls' self-confidence and convey the importance of education to them. In 1980, she began studying education at the University of Vienna, which she soon discontinued in favor of social work. Chyba wanted to tackle the effects of gender inequality directly and support girls in emergencies. In 1987, Chyba began studying social work at the Academy for Social Work in Vienna-Floridsdorf and "has been a feminist social worker ever since." Shortly afterwards, she separated from her then-husband and became a single mother to her children.
During her time at the Social Academy, Ursula Chyba met two like-minded women, Christine Bodendorfer and Sabine Rupp, with whom she worked in a project group on feminist social work. From then on, she pursued her goals together with the two of them: "And then we thought about it: Feminist work. That will be our life". It was the time of the founding of the first women's shelter in Vienna and the first women's counseling center Frauen beraten Frauen. The three women noticed that there was a lack of similar low-threshold counseling services for girls affected by sexual violence, and they took it upon themselves to close this gap: "We have to do that. We have to set that up. The women's shelter has also succeeded in doing this, as has the women's counseling center. That's what we need! The three of us were horrified: There's nothing. There is nothing in Austria that is aimed exclusively at victims of sexual violence."
After graduating from the Academy of Social Work and as a continuation of their joint project work, Chyba and her colleagues founded Vienna's first girls' counselling centre, Mädchenberatung, in 1990, which specialized in the needs of sexually abused girls and young women. The girls' counseling service began in a small tobacconist's, which the group had taken over from the Viennese Association Notruf (see also Melitta Nicponsky). In the beginning, the financial situation of the counseling center was "highly challenging", and the founders (and only female employees at the time) sometimes worked for months without pay. Nonetheless, Chyba found it inspiring that there were many like-minded feminists locally and internationally who were campaigning against violence against women and girls, and she experienced how their strength became more potent together.
In parallel to setting up the girls' counseling service, Chyba also worked in one of Vienna's women's shelters and helped with its establishment. She started there as a trainee in 1988 and eventually took over as a substitute on maternity leave. As her motivation was always to support victims of violence and actively contribute to social change, her work at the Viennese women's shelter was "significant and very educational."
Ursula Chyba has dedicated her entire professional life to working with women and girls affected by violence. Her work focuses on individual resources and potential. It builds positive self-esteem: "Of course, I like to support them against injustice and accompany them through this whole court, police and authority jungle. But there is something incredibly beautiful about working with girls and women when they initially come with very low self-esteem and massive feelings of guilt and then develop into a self-assertive person. And that's exactly why I like doing it so much." Chyba experiences it as a great gift when clients still contact her years after the counseling sessions and report on their further development.
Another important achievement, which is closely linked to the history of the Girls' Counseling Center, is the development of psychosocial trial support. Until 1998, when Chyba and her colleagues conceived of it as court accompaniment, the counselors accompanied women and girls to court hearings by making use of the fact that trusted persons of victims were allowed to attend court. In 2000, the Austrian Minister of Justice at the time, Dr. Böhmdorfer, initiated a pilot project to officially introduce psychosocial trial support and secure it in law. The Girls' Counseling Center and the Tamar Counseling Center (see also Hedwig Pepelnik-Gründler and Esther Hutfless) were involved in the project and the development of psychosocial trial support from the very beginning. In 2006, the right to psychosocial trial support was introduced into Austrian law as part of a criminal law reform. As a result of the reform, since then, "every person affected by violence in Austria has the right to psychosocial and legal trial support". Victims and their relatives have the right to psychosocial support during ongoing investigations and court proceedings, as well as professional support in preparing for and dealing with these.
In the interview, Chyba emphasized that the legal formalization led to a noticeable improvement in her day-to-day work: "This has given us a different status in court, and we are also legally recognized as legal advisors ever since. The gentlemen in court, and nowadays also gentlewomen in court, can not oppose as much." At the same time, Chyba emphasizes the importance of cooperation and good collaboration in this context and notes that psychosocial trial support is now widely appreciated in criminal proceedings.
In the interview, Chyba expresses her concerns about the current shift to the political right in Austria and Europe. Although she herself has fought many battles with ministries over the years to secure recognition of her work and subsidies and jobs, she notes that "it was easier in 2010 than in 2020" to accommodate feminist concepts in institutions.
Chyba is proud of the successful establishment of the Mädchenberatung girls' counseling center in the psychosocial counseling landscape in Vienna and the successful generational change in its own ranks. After founding the counseling center, the co-founders ran the team on their own for ten years before they were able to finance another employee: "We were a very fossilized team. We were the only team in Austria that lasted all those years. We were three co-founders for 10 years and then managed to get a fourth employee on board, and nothing changed until 2019." Since the extensive organizational and personnel restructuring at the counseling center in 2020, Chyba is now the last co-founder of the new team, which includes Katharina Werner, Lisa Schubert, and Stefanie Dorotka. For Chyba, working in a multi-generational team is a great pleasure, and she describes how her feminist attitude has constantly evolved over time.
The girls' counseling center Mädchenberatung is Ursula Chyba's life's work. Even though she might already be retired at the time of the interview, Chyba is clear: "Knowledge makes you strong. The day when I no longer want to know is still very far away."
By Emelie Rack (2024)
To cite this article, see Credits
Selected Works
By and about Ursula Chyba
Chyba, U. (2023, May 8). Interview with Emelie Rack [Audio Recording].