diff --git a/ci/deps/travis-36.yaml b/ci/deps/travis-36.yaml
index 1781f67041f44..de76f5d6d763f 100644
--- a/ci/deps/travis-36.yaml
+++ b/ci/deps/travis-36.yaml
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ dependencies:
   - fastparquet
   - flake8>=3.5
   - flake8-comprehensions
-  - flake8-rst=0.4.2
+  - flake8-rst>=0.6.0
   - gcsfs
   - geopandas
   - html5lib
diff --git a/environment.yml b/environment.yml
index aa3f1fe15820e..4daaa90247fa8 100644
--- a/environment.yml
+++ b/environment.yml
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ dependencies:
   - cython>=0.28.2
   - flake8
   - flake8-comprehensions
-  - flake8-rst=0.4.2
+  - flake8-rst>=0.6.0
   - gitpython
   - hypothesis>=3.82
   - isort
diff --git a/requirements-dev.txt b/requirements-dev.txt
index d24baf3c73356..5e2da69df5f26 100644
--- a/requirements-dev.txt
+++ b/requirements-dev.txt
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ pytz
 cython>=0.28.2
 flake8
 flake8-comprehensions
-flake8-rst==0.4.2
+flake8-rst>=0.6.0
 gitpython
 hypothesis>=3.82
 isort
diff --git a/setup.cfg b/setup.cfg
index 8fba814188af5..cc7393e5a09b9 100644
--- a/setup.cfg
+++ b/setup.cfg
@@ -31,25 +31,65 @@ exclude =
     env  # exclude asv benchmark environments from linting
 
 [flake8-rst]
-ignore =
-    F821,  # undefined name
-    W391,  # blank line at end of file [Seems to be a bug (v0.4.1)]
+ignore = E402,  # module level import not at top of file
+         W503,  # line break before binary operator
 exclude =
     doc/source/whatsnew/v0.7.0.rst
+    doc/source/whatsnew/v0.7.3.rst
+    doc/source/whatsnew/v0.8.0.rst
+    doc/source/whatsnew/v0.9.0.rst
+    doc/source/whatsnew/v0.9.1.rst
+    doc/source/whatsnew/v0.10.0.rst
     doc/source/whatsnew/v0.10.1.rst
+    doc/source/whatsnew/v0.11.0.rst
     doc/source/whatsnew/v0.12.0.rst
     doc/source/whatsnew/v0.13.0.rst
     doc/source/whatsnew/v0.13.1.rst
     doc/source/whatsnew/v0.14.0.rst
+    doc/source/whatsnew/v0.14.1.rst
     doc/source/whatsnew/v0.15.0.rst
+    doc/source/whatsnew/v0.15.1.rst
+    doc/source/whatsnew/v0.15.2.rst
     doc/source/whatsnew/v0.16.0.rst
+    doc/source/whatsnew/v0.16.1.rst
     doc/source/whatsnew/v0.16.2.rst
     doc/source/whatsnew/v0.17.0.rst
+    doc/source/whatsnew/v0.17.1.rst
     doc/source/whatsnew/v0.18.0.rst
     doc/source/whatsnew/v0.18.1.rst
+    doc/source/whatsnew/v0.19.0.rst
     doc/source/whatsnew/v0.20.0.rst
     doc/source/whatsnew/v0.21.0.rst
+    doc/source/whatsnew/v0.22.0.rst
     doc/source/whatsnew/v0.23.0.rst
+    doc/source/whatsnew/v0.23.1.rst
+    doc/source/whatsnew/v0.23.2.rst
+    doc/source/whatsnew/v0.24.0.rst
+    doc/source/10min.rst
+    doc/source/advanced.rst
+    doc/source/basics.rst
+    doc/source/categorical.rst
+    doc/source/comparison_with_r.rst
+    doc/source/comparison_with_sql.rst
+    doc/source/comparison_with_stata.rst
+    doc/source/computation.rst
+    doc/source/contributing.rst
+    doc/source/contributing_docstring.rst
+    doc/source/dsintro.rst
+    doc/source/enhancingperf.rst
+    doc/source/extending.rst
+    doc/source/groupby.rst
+    doc/source/indexing.rst
+    doc/source/io.rst
+    doc/source/merging.rst
+    doc/source/missing_data.rst
+    doc/source/options.rst
+    doc/source/release.rst
+    doc/source/reshaping.rst
+    doc/source/timedeltas.rst
+    doc/source/timeseries.rst
+    doc/source/visualization.rst
+
 
 [yapf]
 based_on_style = pep8