The age for retirement, was originally the same as life expectancy (1938- 60 years old for both). The only people who could expect to retire at all, were genuinely "elderly" (ie above average life expectancy).
Life expectancy has gone up and up, but retirement age hasn't, and we have got to the point, where people are either in full-time education or retired, for about as long as they are actually working. And that is assuming every person works full-time, with no breaks, unemployment, etc. It clearly can't carry on, and the pension age should have been increased ages ago, at a much slower rate.
This obviously isn't "equality" as men are not in the same situation where they need to suddenly provide for extra years.
But it is something that has been a long time coming. A few generations have been very lucky, because of the disorganisation, but it has not been handled well and should really have been thought about around 50 years ago, when it was obvious.