When someone mentions the reality TV shows The Bachelor and The Bachelorette feminism is probably not the first thing that comes to mind.

But tune into Lifetime’s UnREAL, a scripted show about the making of a reality dating show, and you’ll find the f-word is front and centre.

The focus of the Vancouver-shot UnREAL is showrunner Quinn (Constance Zimmer) and producer Rachel (Shiri Appleby). They are tough, ambitious and completely messed up. The messed up part has a lot to do with being tough and ambitious in the world of television.

That concept is a reality the women behind this show know firsthand.

“One of the themes for this season is men taking credit for women’s work, and that is absolutely something Sarah (show co-creator Sarah Shapiro) and I have both experienced in this industry, and was important to talk about more,” said Stacy Rukeyser the showrunner, and a writer on the show.

Based on a short film by Shapiro, who was a producer on The Bachelor for three years, UnREAL is set on the set of dating show Everlasting.

Season three brings us back onto the set of Everlasting after the show was shut down for three months after a scandal. The mighty Quinn is no longer that mighty. Her baller reputation has had the air taken out of it leaving her clinging to a bottle of vodka and questioning her once unshakable instincts.

In the past, Everlasting was focused on a hunk hunting down TV love. Now at the centre of the action is a woman hoping to find true love in a sea of central casting suitors.

Described in the show as a female Elon Musk the “suitress,” Serena (Caitlin FitzGerald) is tough, focused, super successful and unhappily single.

Rukeyser says the successful woman who doesn’t have it all conceit was not an easy sell to the network, as the world seemed to be preparing for a Hillary Clinton White House. But as we all know too well, that reality was usurped by a reality TV host.

“When we were pitching the idea of the feminist suitress to our network it was back in that time when everyone, in Hollywood at least, thought Hillary Clinton was going to be the next president,” said Rukeyser.

“At first glance that would appear great, but not if you were going to have a character who can’t have it all.

“There was a question if Hillary Clinton is going to be our next president are these issues still relevant?” added Rukeyser a cum laude graduate of Princeton University, and daughter of the late PBS Wall Street Week host Louis Rukeyser.

“#MeToo happened after we had season three in the can. So it was just sort of good luck that we were addressing some of these issues of sexism and empowerment,” said Rukeyser.

Sexism and empowerment were not new topics for UnREAL. Since it hit the airwaves in 2015 it has been clear this is a show that had something bigger to say than just reality TV isn’t real.

TV critics caught UnREAL’s drift, and championed the show. It won a 2016 Peabody Award for its contribution to television.

“It’s great to write on a show that is trying to say something,” said Rukeyser who has been with the show since it started.

“Right from the beginning we have been talking about the princess fantasy that reality television and these dating shows perpetuate in this culture, and how dangerous it is this idea that women should be perfectly fine with dating a guy who is dating 20 other women.”

“All you need to do is look really good in a bikini and don’t really talk about your work and just be completely available and fight for the prize, which is a man. In exchange the man will pick you up in a helicopter and take you to Bali for dinner, and that’s what relationships with men and women are — and that’s horrifying.”

Another thing horrifying for Rukeyser is how fans of reality dating shows pile on and pick favourites; how they crave the sequined-covered conflict that seems to always be just one bottle of white wine away.