That is, after all, what editors and betas and test-audiences are for.
Well, TV doesn't really have those things. There are execs who approve stories and scripts but how useful those notes are can vary greatly. ;-)
Why does "greatly" look so wrong to me? I hate when that happens.
In my brief time on the other side, I've discovered that sometimes people really do know. And they do it anyway. (Not just talking about the misogyny issue here but more things that make your eyes roll in general.) Sometimes, it's because there genuinely is no other option. But other times, it's that this is the story they want to tell and you can go at them until you're blue in the face and it won't make a difference. Both of those situations can be frustrating for different reasons.
Since I don't know the parties involved, I can't speak on if they know or not and if they care or not.
Though I will now give a funny example of an actual "not knowing" moment. On Drive, there had been an idea to do flashbacks of how Alex met and fell in love with his wife. The writers had been in two different rooms so, when we got back together, one of the senior writers told us the planned flashbacks. One of them was Alex and Kathryn's first date and he takes her to this, like, dilapidated greenhouse. (The idea being that he's just bought what will eventually be his landscaping business and wants to share it with her and they have a romantic picnic or something inside the greenhouse.)
So he finishes telling us and I guess that Lauren (story editor) and I had equal looks of horror on our faces. We had to explain to the boys that, if you're a single woman and some guy you just met takes you to ANY kind of abandoned building, you're not going inside. You're running away and calling 911. Otherwise, you might never be seen again.
"You wouldn't think it was romantic?"
"I would think he was a serial killer."