diff --git a/pandas/tests/test_downstream.py b/pandas/tests/test_downstream.py
index e22b9a0ef25e3..92b4e5a99041a 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/test_downstream.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/test_downstream.py
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@
 import numpy as np  # noqa
 import pytest
 
-from pandas.compat import PY36
+from pandas.compat import PY2, PY36, is_platform_windows
 
 from pandas import DataFrame
 from pandas.util import testing as tm
@@ -58,6 +58,8 @@ def test_xarray(df):
     assert df.to_xarray() is not None
 
 
+@pytest.mark.skipif(is_platform_windows() and PY2,
+                    reason="Broken on Windows / Py2")
 def test_oo_optimizable():
     # GH 21071
     subprocess.check_call([sys.executable, "-OO", "-c", "import pandas"])