The Good Earth1

The book "The Good Earth," by Pearl S. Buck starts off with Wang Lung, a Chinese farmer before the revolution, about to get married. Note, however, that he has never actually met the woman who is to be his wife and his old father has insisted that she should be a slave, "Not a slave too young, and above all, not a pretty one"! Wang Lung's own father has insisted this because otherwise the wife would be too demanding.
Wang Lung goes to the great house to pick up his wife, and he comes out of the gate followed by O-lan. Within the first seven chapters, O-lan bears Wang Lung two sons, and then, much to Wang Lung's horror, a girl, or "only a slave".
In case one cannot tell, the first chapters lay out a setting of considerable sexism and similar discrimination.