I have a 45cm women's specific design bike, and the frame is much shorter, so if the wheel is turned sharply enough, my foot will hit the wheel on the downstroke, and I will fall.

Fortunately this only occurs at very low speeds. At higher speeds, you do not have to turn the wheel as sharply, and tend to turn more by leaning into the turn. I've only hit the wheel once due to toe overhang, so I just have to keep it in mind when riding slow.

There is almost no way around this issue on smaller frames, which is why they usually come with the smaller 650 wheels to minimize this problem. On some of the smaller Terry wsd bikes, they eliminate this problem completely by putting even smaller wheels on the front, and a standard 700c wheel on the rear.