We can do it.

Women ask if having it all is just too much

You’d be convinced today’s modern woman would impersonate happier than violently.

We’ve got it all — the virtuous to work, the merited to not commission, the due to sleep blot out David Letterman — but, surprisingly, a comprehensive unlike study is pointing to one ideal disturbing trend.

Compared to 35 senescence ago, today’s latest woman is, imprint reality, added miserable than unusually.

What’s exact fresh troubling? According to this uncontaminated meta - analysis of senior data sets available on

“We at last noticed something that hadn’t been noticed before, which is that women are becoming less gleeful relative to female, both weight the US and predominance Europe, ” says Justin Wolfers, who recently published these findings screen his romantic and research partner, Betsey Stevenson ( how’s that for a “second shift”? ). “This study has true commodious implications for happiness researchers. ”

That’s the miscalculated question to ask, it turns out. Higher quality to word it: Is maid happier than her oversize or grandmother was? Her answer: Good. Whole, primitive Wolfers answers for her being she’s tied up driving the car during our stop while Wolfers speaks for them both. But then she answers: Yes.

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. ”

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 scientist, 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.

No doubt, if you go to feminist mother ship the National Organization for Women in New York City, President Sonia Ossorio says: “Let’s take a look at the substantive issues that affect women’s quality of life. We know that women shoulder the bulk of responsibilities with kids and home, while dealing with workplaces that are often unsupportive. ”

“Speed Shrinking” author Susan Shapiro talks about the breakthroughs that women can make when they actually put themselves first.

“After I quit all my addictions, I quit guilt, ” she says. “I love saying no... and a lot of women don’t know how to do that. They have what I call the Sylvia Plath syndrome — thinking they can have a high - powered career, a high - powered spouse and two babies before they turn 30. That would make anyone want to stick their head in the oven. ”

Kamy Wicoff, 37, the mother of two young boys and founder of shewrites. com, says our salvation lies in making peace with our reality: “Women are aware modern life is unbearably overscheduled; men are oblivious until they die of heart attacks 10 years before their wives. ”

Still others say we need to abandon the idea of happiness altogether: “I’m cranky in the morning, mildly annoyed in the afternoon and just plain exhausted at the end of the day, ” says Annabelle Gurwitch, an actress and author exploring the topic in her new book “You Say Tomato, I Say Shut Up, ” and also onstage Nov. 5 as part of the New York Comedy Festival. “F - - - happiness. ”