Can we do it?

You’d think today’s modern woman would be happier than ever.

We’ve got it all — the right to work, the right to not work, the right to sleep with David Letterman — but, surprisingly, a comprehensive new study is pointing to one very disturbing trend.

Compared to 35 years ago, today’s modern woman is, in fact, more miserable than ever.

What’s even more troubling? According to this new meta-analysis of major data sets available on well-being research, men by contrast are actually growing more content than ever.

“We basically noticed something that hadn’t been noticed before, which is that women are becoming less happy relative to men, both in the US and in Europe,” says Justin Wolfers, who recently published these findings with his romantic and research partner, Betsey Stevenson (how’s that for a “second shift”?). “This study has very big implications for happiness researchers.”

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Rosie the riveter.

So, does Stevenson, a 38-year-old woman, think she’s happier now?

That’s the wrong question to ask, it turns out. Better to phrase it: Is she happier than her mother or grandmother was? Her answer: Yes. Well, first Wolfers answers for her because she’s busy driving the car during our interview while Wolfers speaks for them both. But then she answers: Yes.

And for those who think the research is simply skewed by the rise in single mothers, nope. This applies to those with kids and without.

Essentially, Wolfers and Stevenson, both economists at the University of Pennsylvania, analyzed several happiness studies from the last 35 years. The trend that emerged from the data, which included research related to 1 million men and women, applies to the female gender collectively. Or in the words of the study: “irrespective of the age, marital, labor market or fertility status of the group analyzed.”

Think of it as the Sisterhood of the Traveling Misery.

When confronted with the study results, one woman The Post spoke to responded: “Wouldn’t it be easier if your man just told you what to do? Are you with me, ladies?” She’s kidding, of course, but as a 27-year-old Internet consultant from Brooklyn, she identifies the central conundrum of the study.

Wolfers, who stresses that he’s a number-cruncher, not a social commentator, has several theories explaining his results (methodological, environmental). But the most intriguing one is what he calls the “Rush Limbaugh Theory,” which is that the women’s movement was (and please don’t shoot the messenger here) actually a bad thing for women — at least in terms of feelings of well-being and contentment.