Through the lens of 2019, he couldn't believe what he was seeing in the way that the main female character was constantly hit on in her workplace, even by the extras.

When confronted with the scenario without the benefit of contemporary social contextual bias, the sexism, crassness and brazen sexual demands the character had to handle forced him to confront the fact that this was the norm for many women.

Earlier this year, I came face to face to with this issue myself when I decided to re-watch Blue Heelers from season one. I'd never really noticed the blatant sexism and overt condescension that became apparent throughout the show.

For example, I was amazed to realise that Roz Patterson was expected to be the station cleaner just because she was married to Constable Wayne Patterson. When she wanted to start her own beauty business, she had to ask Sergeant Tom Croydon's permission and he was extremely unwilling to give it.

Lisa McCune's arrival on the scene as Constable Maggie Doyle threw a cat amongst the roosters as she called out poor behaviour and held the men accountable for their actions.

The strength of her character was seen in her consistent demand for equal respect, earned through her own actions and behaviours on the job. She didn't quietly ask for equality, she demanded it and had the stones to call her colleagues out when their chauvinism was showing.

As my friend suggested, you don't really see it until you take away the cultural context that facilitates it.

I always shrugged off the awkward innuendos and pet names, the inappropriate advances and power plays that I experienced at work as the actions of people behaving inappropriately, rather than it being a men v women thing.

This is perhaps exemplified by the conflicting social trope of men being both the protectors and protagonists especially when, in my experience, women are not unburdened of responsibility through a propensity for slut-shaming and constant competition.

Let me share a personal story with you. When I worked as a recruiter, there was an older man who worked for us and was fly-in fly-out from Perth. He had a wife and kids in the city and a girlfriend onsite, who was a friend of a female colleague.

One night, I went out to the pub with a group of friends and he was there on the periphery. After he awkwardly watched me all night, I decided I'd had enough and waited outside the venue for a taxi to take me home. As I waited, he approached and proceeded to indecently assault me.

A group of young men who had been standing outside approached and asked me if I was OK and then stood with me while I waited for the taxi.

I reported it to my boss (and police) the next day, telling her I felt violated and unsafe and I didn't want to have to deal with him in the workplace.

She told me to get over it and advised me to "learn how to deal with this, as mining's a man's world." The colleague blamed me for what had happened.

I'm not denying there are social and cultural tropes that lead to some men having a sense of entitlement to treat women a certain way. However, men are also often cast as the protectors in the story and women are a part of this narrative, too.

If we, as women, sweep it under the carpet and slut-shame the women in these scenarios, we are contributing to the continuation of the issue.

We owe it to ourselves - and to each other - to support our fellow women and not try to silence those who demand better from their colleagues and bosses.

Characters like Maggie Doyle have paved the way for holding fellow workers accountable for their actions and reshaping our workplace cultures to be more inclusive, while supporting women to achieve their goals. If we can reach the glass ceiling to smash through it in 2019, it is by standing on the shoulders of these women - both in media and in real work environments.

After all, we're all in this together.

Zoë Wundenberg is a careers consultant and un/employment advocate at impressability.com.au