4'10

[IbrahimSanad]

What is meant by "4'10" in this context:

"Wilkinson was alone as the only woman on the Labour benches—one of the “Orphans of the Storm" as she jokingly put it in her Maiden Speech—and yet it did not impede her limitless confidence, enthusiasm and commitment to parliamentary politics. Standing at just 4'10 with flame-red hair that matched her left-wing politics, she earned the epithets “Red Ellen", “The Fiery Particle" and the “Pocket Pasionara" (for her involvement in Spanish Civil War campaigning)."

Source: The Division Bell Mystery by Ellen Wilkinson

 

[entangledbank]

Four feet ten inches (in height).

Inches are often indicated with the double " symbol: 10" = ten inches; so it could also have been 4'10".

 

[heypresto]

When spoken, it would be 'four foot ten.'

 

[Rover_KE]

FYI: 4'10" = 170cm or 1.7m

 

[CaptainZero]

I make it 147.32 cm, Rover.

58 inches x 2.54 cm to the inch = 147.32.

 

[Wordy McWordface]

4'10" ("four ten" or "four foot ten") is the height of an average eleven-year-old child. It is very short for an adult woman.

 

[puli_dog]

FYI: 4'10" = 170cm or 1.7m

You're not a NASA employee, aren't you?

 

[kentix]

Standing at just 4'10

When "standing" is used that way it's a sort of synonym for height.

"Just" indicates the writer thinks it's a very short height for a person, and it is. Anything less than 5 feet is considered quite short for an adult, even a woman.

4 feet 12 inches = 5 feet, so she is 2 inches (5 cm) shorter than that