What does it mean to be a Renaissance woman today? That's the question actress Whitney Rice will answer when she takes the stage as the keynote speaker at the San Gabriel Valleys Women's Summit.
Presented by the Duarte Chamber of Commerce, the event will kick off on Friday, May 10, from 12:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., at the DoubleTree Hotel in Monrovia. The summit began as the Duarte Womens Business Expo in 2015 and has been held annually except for a two-year hiatus, from 2020 to 2022.
The event is also in honor of Duarte council member Tzeitel Paras-Caracci, who died in 2022 following a battle with lung cancer. She created the summit to empower women and help them succeed.
Jennifer Dickinson invited Rice to speak at the summit. Author and writing coach, she is also one of the guest speakers.
Rice is best known for playing Jacquiline Hilgrove on the four-time Emmy Award-nominated show Jury Duty. Before he started acting, Rice worked as a teacher. Her first foray into the industry was through stand-up, something she admits she wasn't very good at when she started.
The event is also in honor of Duarte council member Tzeitel Paras-Caracci, who died in 2022 following a battle with lung cancer. She created the summit as a way to empower women and help them succeed.
(Teri Bond/Submitted)
It gave me the backbone I needed to put more of myself and more of my voice out there, Rice said.
Her breakthrough came when she landed an audition for a theater production of The Last Tycoon.
During her speech, Rice plans to address her multifaceted vision of the modern Renaissance woman.
Being a Renaissance person or woman in today's time is both admirable and very complicated because of what we've done in defining the concept, Rice said. Specifically, as women, I think we tend to put a lot of pressure on ourselves to do everything.
Specifically, we will discuss the challenges this role has created.
I think it's cool that we can have it all. We can do everything right now, Rice said. That's great, but that doesn't mean we have to do everything we can to be relevant.
She plans to discuss the trend of women juggling multiple jobs, wives, mothers, influencers, business owners and therapists. However, they hold themselves back because they are afraid of failing.
Whitney Rice is best known for playing Jacquiline Hilgrove in The Quadruple
Emmy Award-nominated show Jury Duty. (Teri Bond/Submitted)
Fear is in their way, and I think it's very important to use fear as a compass, Rice said.
What I want women to start doing is when they feel that fear like, “I can't do this,” then that means they need to take the step forward, they need to take this opportunity.
It’s not about treating failure as an end point but as an indicator of progress.
I think scientists are right that when they test something and it fails, they rejoice because they believe it brings them closer to the solution, Rice said.
Examples included writing a movie script that may not have been well received or showing up to a dinner party with a dish the guests didn't like.
This doesn't mean you should never write or cook again; it just means you get closer to what works and what works for you, Rice said.
She went on to say that she wasn't just there to talk. Her advice comes from personal experience, like her family's reaction when she left the security of her teaching career to pursue her acting career.
“They were really mad at me and they didn't understand that I wanted to take the plunge into acting, and I get it, it's scary,” Rice said. There is no job security in this field, but I had to put my head down and ignore being told it was a crazy idea.
It also meant learning to defend yourself.
Over the last 10 years in this industry in Hollywood, and I think this applies to all careers, I spent so much time listening to what other people wanted me to be, how I should do my hair, how I should speak, what was my point of view. The question is what kind of acting I should do, what kind of writing I should do, Rice said. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I realized: you know what? I'm going to do what I want to do.
When I started accepting who I am, my quirks and my flaws and showing up as me, flaws and all, that's when the opportunities started to open up and present themselves to me. me, but more importantly, it made me feel good.
This is because, fundamentally, the definition of rebirth is rebirth. It’s about seeking knowledge, finding balance, and seeking social awareness. It’s not about performance of perfection.
I wear a lot of hats. I'm an actor, writer, director, public speaking coach, wife, friend, volunteer, mentor, Rice said. These are all things that a Renaissance woman would do by definition, but (I do it) because it does my soul good, not because it seems demanded by society and my peers.
For all women who feel like they can't break out of the cycle, Rice promises an authentic and sympathetic view of her own experience as a modern Renaissance woman.
When we're in that space, it feels very performative and inauthentic, Rice said. What I hope women take away from this is that they move away from perfectionism and toward what feels authentic and good in ourselves and not for others.
