diff --git a/.github/workflows/python-dev.yml b/.github/workflows/python-dev.yml
index 8b3a5a23d7a97..a7c7f3b739f65 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/python-dev.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/python-dev.yml
@@ -45,10 +45,11 @@ jobs:
       with:
         python-version: '3.10-dev'
 
+    # TODO: GH#44980 https://github.com/pypa/setuptools/issues/2941
     - name: Install dependencies
       shell: bash
       run: |
-        python -m pip install --upgrade pip setuptools wheel
+        python -m pip install --upgrade pip "setuptools<60.0.0" wheel
         pip install -i https://pypi.anaconda.org/scipy-wheels-nightly/simple numpy
         pip install git+https://github.com/nedbat/coveragepy.git
         pip install cython python-dateutil pytz hypothesis pytest>=6.2.5 pytest-xdist pytest-cov
diff --git a/azure-pipelines.yml b/azure-pipelines.yml
index 6c685d09ab55a..ac91dcac4d2d8 100644
--- a/azure-pipelines.yml
+++ b/azure-pipelines.yml
@@ -36,13 +36,14 @@ jobs:
     vmImage: ubuntu-18.04
 
   steps:
+    # TODO: GH#44980 https://github.com/pypa/setuptools/issues/2941
     - script: |
         docker pull quay.io/pypa/manylinux2014_i686
         docker run -v $(pwd):/pandas quay.io/pypa/manylinux2014_i686 \
         /bin/bash -xc "cd pandas && \
         /opt/python/cp38-cp38/bin/python -m venv ~/virtualenvs/pandas-dev && \
         . ~/virtualenvs/pandas-dev/bin/activate && \
-        python -m pip install --no-deps -U pip wheel setuptools && \
+        python -m pip install --no-deps -U pip wheel 'setuptools<60.0.0' && \
         pip install cython numpy python-dateutil pytz pytest pytest-xdist hypothesis pytest-azurepipelines && \
         python setup.py build_ext -q -j2 && \
         python -m pip install --no-build-isolation -e . && \
diff --git a/ci/setup_env.sh b/ci/setup_env.sh
index 2e16bc6545161..4a3e103ea0310 100755
--- a/ci/setup_env.sh
+++ b/ci/setup_env.sh
@@ -106,7 +106,8 @@ echo "[Build extensions]"
 python setup.py build_ext -q -j2
 
 echo "[Updating pip]"
-python -m pip install --no-deps -U pip wheel setuptools
+# TODO: GH#44980 https://github.com/pypa/setuptools/issues/2941
+python -m pip install --no-deps -U pip wheel "setuptools<60.0.0"
 
 echo "[Install pandas]"
 python -m pip install --no-build-isolation -e .