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Originally, I think "equality" was taken to mean "equal treatment under the law", though even that is vague, because no one would suggest that law shouldn't be able to distinguish between different types of people (vagrants vs. nonprofit charity owners, for example.) Perhaps something more like "equal consideration of your concerns while drafting the laws", but even that isn't true, because society has an overall interest in furthering the interests of people who contribute more to society than to furthering the interests of people who injure society (criminals, say.) In the end, I don't know what "equality" can sensibly mean besides some sort of adherance to a vaguely utilitarian philosophy.
As far as "equality of outcome" visions of equality, my feeling is that it is a pretty vision, but very hard to achieve in practice. This is a factual matter for which I have little evidence on hand, but it is my feeling that people who have tried to achieve some sort of cosmic justice for society by direct social engineering meet with failure more often than not, and often end up hurting the people they were trying to help. "Society" is a really really complex thing and I think people who think that all that is needed is the "imagination" or "dedication" of a few intellectual reformers to make everything better are off their rocker. The sheer magnitude of human knowledge required to make society function is overwhelming and, more importantly, that knowledge is decentralized. There is no more than a small amount of the total lodged in any one person. And, the aggregate of "normal people" that intellectuals like to look down on contains a lot more of that knowledge than any small group of intellectuals. Example: Would the world be a better place if everyone was Einstein? No it wouldn't, because no one would have any idea how to grow wheat, grind it into flour, sanitize water, bind books, build computers, or organize sock drawers. Anyway, I'm rambling.
Conclusion: Society is too complicated for us to hope to impose absolute social justice, which is what "equality" is starting to mean in politics today. It's still important to have compassion and try to help people, but it's also important not to hurt the people you're trying to help through the unintended consequences of over-ambitious schemes.
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