diff --git a/config/configure.in b/config/configure.in
index 4611bb12..e6ade507 100644
--- a/config/configure.in
+++ b/config/configure.in
@@ -931,6 +931,12 @@ fi
 echo "----- checking pthread support"
 AX_PTHREAD
 
+case "$SYSTEM" in
+  cygwin)
+    PTHREAD_CFLAGS=""
+    ;;
+esac
+
 # On linux plaforms, we will have to check that includes from kernel are
 # available. glibc version test was shamelessly taken from
 # http://public.activestate.com/gsar/APC/perl-5.8.x/Configure