Abstract: The reforms and post-reform period of the second half of the XIX century mark significant changes in the political, socioeconomic, and cultural life of the country, and acceleration of urbanization by the beginning of the 1880s. The author also indicates the growing number of employed women, which was particularly evident in the large cities of the Russian Empire. For studying the problem of women’s employment of the end XIX century, the article used the aggregated census data of the three largest cities of the Russian Empire – Saint Petersburg (1881), Moscow (1882), and the capital of the Kingdom of Poland Warsaw (1882). The subject of this article is the examination and analysis of the number of female workers in each group and information about occupational groups, contained in the form of tables in separate volumes of censuses. Emphasis is placed on the quantitative distribution of women by occupational groups, as well as broader categories – types of activity; this allows determining the differences for each city, as well as comparing Saint Petersburg, Moscow and Warsaw during the 1880s in percentage terms. The conclusion is made that the market for female household personnel and day laborers was more developed in Warsaw, while the number of women employed in household service and industrial sector prevailed in Moscow and Saint Petersburg.