Did gender and class significantly influence one's life opportunities in ancient China?

The above answer deals with Confucian examinations, etc.
which was practiced during the Classical Chinese period. Confucianism never appeared in
China before the Period of the Warring States, and indeed was a response to that period.
For that reason I respectfully believe the above answer is not responsive to the
prompt.

Social and class distinction appeared early on in
Chinese History. Only members of the nobility were allowed to collect taxes, which were
paid by the lower classes. Only the upper classes held military or administrative
positions within the government. Only the upper classes had extensive land holdings
while the poor worked in the fields of the well to do. Class was determined by birth, so
ones status and chances of success in life were in fact determined at birth and did not
change. The upper class had a much richer and more nutritious diet (meat and game) than
the lower classes; and also lived in palatial mansions made of pounded earth; whereas
the poor ate only porridges and lived in below-ground
dwellings.

Ancient China was a strongly patriarchal society
in which men held all positions of authority. Important women in society were honored
only in relation to their husbands. So strong was the patriarchal system that
inheritance, which previously had been matrilineal became patrilineal. Foot binding,
mentioned in the above answer, only became popular during the classical period, later
than the ancient period.