This article analyses the structure of and changes to the income-earning activities of Russian urban households from 1985 to 2000. An intensive diversification of income sources is observed, which indicates an engagement with every available (and individually acceptable) opportunity for paid employment, and also an intensive engagement in different types of household work. However, the growth in real income since 1999 has induced households to abandon specific types of income-earning activities, the first casualty being subsidiary agriculture, and the second labour-intensive, time-consuming types of household work. Another important change took place in gender specialization in domestic labour: though women still worked substantially more in the household than men, at the end of the period under consideration, there are signs that this gender gap has been partially bridged.