diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/python/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/python/package.py
index 8033c52b91b..d0191335855 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/python/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/python/package.py
@@ -47,6 +47,8 @@ class Python(Package):
 
     extendable = True
 
+    variant('ucs4', default=False, description='Enable UCS4 unicode strings')
+
     depends_on("openssl")
     depends_on("bzip2")
     depends_on("readline")
@@ -82,6 +84,9 @@ def install(self, spec, prefix):
             "LDFLAGS=-L{0}".format(ldflags)
         ]
 
+        if '+ucs4' in spec:
+            config_args.append('--enable-unicode=ucs4')
+
         if spec.satisfies('@3:'):
             config_args.append('--without-ensurepip')