This statement is an admission of guilt. Not from Biden only, but from a society that still puts women at a social and economic disadvantage, as a default. Every human being is born with the right to be respected and dignified. It is not a question of ‘deserving’. The fact that he says “women deserve to be treated with dignity and respect” is instead a statement of superiority, that extracts women from humanity and considers them as a standalone category, more alike to cats or dogs, that men can chose to treat with dignity and respect, or not. And Biden maybe is, but his statement should have been ‘we, men, should hope that women will continue to treat us with respect, after we, men, have oppressed, insulted, and humiliated them for centuries.’ Until then, it is just patronising.