Having known Georgena since before she tried to build her first bike I feel I have some validity in discussions about her bikes. I'll add that over 10% of my frames have been patterned after her designs.
No where, not ever was strength as a pedaling power aspect ever mentioned. Now strength as an upper body supporting aspect has, right from the beginning. So perhaps Robbie Tunes has miss read the Terry written words...
Georgena was looking for a more comfortable reach (and one that allowed for more hand positions on drop bars instead of the tops only, as is common when reach is too far) and more stand over clearance. As she started to build for others (and yes, for some guys too) she sought out different solutions for these two goals, which led her to Bill Boston and his long/short series of bikes.
I find it so interesting that the riders of her bikes don't tend to follow our industry's fashions or traditions, being a male dominated business there is no surprise at how the products offered are so extremely male view focused. How many female shop owners are there now in this too slowly changing gendered world? Now travel back to the Regan world of the 1980s and guess again... Like is so popular today, when facing facts that run counter to someone's views, defining your competition to fit your views seems to be the winning formula. So too it is in the male centric world of bike shops and bike brands. If a guy didn't have the problem of not being able to confidently reach the brake levers, come to a stop without potential pain and control loss, didn't suffer from shoulder/neck tension after only a few miles and had to suffer with floppy/truck like steering with way high a center of gravity then neither should his lady friend. I don't know how many guys I worked with who would blame the female (you just need to get stronger, get faster, learn how to ride better... suck it up, riding isn't meant to be easy) Like I said, very much like what many do today in blaming the victim.
It was this, and a few other perceptions, that made it so hard for the Terry bikes to meet with greater acceptance. When some brands did try to mimic her designs they usually didn't go far enough. The small ft wheel but with the same top tube lengths as their dual 700c wheeled bikes had, handle bars speced for male width shoulders, brake levers same, Bike models only at the lowest price points (as though women couldn't appreciate nice things and have the money to get them). So often the Terrys in the LBS were off to the side, not showcased. They were sold by guys who didn't understand their potential customers and used male code words (like "fast" or "power") that many women were already tired of hearing elsewhere in their lives. No wonder that many Terrys sat around and didn't sell in enough volume to make it worthwhile to both reorder and expand the women's offerings in general.
One example of this is the spare tube. That one might carry a second tube was considered so wrong, so not fast, so much trouble. Another was the test ride and the Terry's handling. With a smaller wheel the bikes handled with a quicker reaction then the poor geometries of a 700c wheeled bike when small in size. Initial riders would say that the bikes were twitchy. And they were at first. So the solution that was rarely suggested was to go ride their current bike and note how slow/sluggish the handling was then return and retest the Terry to see how much more freely it felt without any toe overlap at all. I'll admit that the time investment a Terry often took to sell was beyond many shops' practices. But as a shop owner who sold Terrys from the very beginning I found those riders often became very profitable with add ons, clothing, service and some of my best word of mouth advocates.
As the 650c wheels became more common (and accepted, after all Moser set his hour record on one, Olympic team event bikes were using them, even tri guys sought them out so they must be faster...
) this opened up new options for fit, handling and such. But, like to a degree with the 520 wheel bikes, brands didn't like carrying the extra SKUs of bike models and parts. As the sales (see my earlier comments why) were low in these offerings more and more were dropped. It's easy to believe what you have to sell is what you need to sell.
So to go back, using differing wheel sizes is not about pedaling strength or power. When I hear these arguments used I know that the speaker is buying into the hype of marketing and don't truly understand what's it's like to not fit what's offered. Having such a narrow view of bike design (power, speed) so misses the boat as to why so many riders are rolling along, male or female.
BYW if you really want to learn about the Terry brand and it's history/story just wait a bit. Georgena has told me that she's writing a book about it. When it's published every guy who has a female friend who rides should read it, then pass it along to their friend. Andy. (who notes that there are so few women who post to this forum... no surprise)