diff --git a/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.24.0.txt b/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.24.0.txt
index 3a44b0260153c..d1ede31fd5d1d 100644
--- a/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.24.0.txt
+++ b/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.24.0.txt
@@ -749,6 +749,7 @@ I/O
 - :func:`read_sas()` will parse numbers in sas7bdat-files that have width less than 8 bytes correctly. (:issue:`21616`)
 - :func:`read_sas()` will correctly parse sas7bdat files with many columns (:issue:`22628`)
 - :func:`read_sas()` will correctly parse sas7bdat files with data page types having also bit 7 set (so page type is 128 + 256 = 384) (:issue:`16615`)
+- Bug in :meth:`detect_client_encoding` where potential ``IOError`` goes unhandled when importing in a mod_wsgi process due to restricted access to stdout. (:issue:`21552`)
 
 Plotting
 ^^^^^^^^
diff --git a/pandas/io/formats/console.py b/pandas/io/formats/console.py
index 45d50ea3fa073..b8b28a0b0c98c 100644
--- a/pandas/io/formats/console.py
+++ b/pandas/io/formats/console.py
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ def detect_console_encoding():
     encoding = None
     try:
         encoding = sys.stdout.encoding or sys.stdin.encoding
-    except AttributeError:
+    except (AttributeError, IOError):
         pass
 
     # try again for something better
diff --git a/pandas/tests/io/formats/test_console.py b/pandas/tests/io/formats/test_console.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..055763bf62d6e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pandas/tests/io/formats/test_console.py
@@ -0,0 +1,74 @@
+import pytest
+
+from pandas.io.formats.console import detect_console_encoding
+
+
+class MockEncoding(object):  # TODO(py27): replace with mock
+    """
+    Used to add a side effect when accessing the 'encoding' property. If the
+    side effect is a str in nature, the value will be returned. Otherwise, the
+    side effect should be an exception that will be raised.
+    """
+    def __init__(self, encoding):
+        super(MockEncoding, self).__init__()
+        self.val = encoding
+
+    @property
+    def encoding(self):
+        return self.raise_or_return(self.val)
+
+    @staticmethod
+    def raise_or_return(val):
+        if isinstance(val, str):
+            return val
+        else:
+            raise val
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize('empty,filled', [
+    ['stdin', 'stdout'],
+    ['stdout', 'stdin']
+])
+def test_detect_console_encoding_from_stdout_stdin(monkeypatch, empty, filled):
+    # Ensures that when sys.stdout.encoding or sys.stdin.encoding is used when
+    # they have values filled.
+    # GH 21552
+    with monkeypatch.context() as context:
+        context.setattr('sys.{}'.format(empty), MockEncoding(''))
+        context.setattr('sys.{}'.format(filled), MockEncoding(filled))
+        assert detect_console_encoding() == filled
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize('encoding', [
+    AttributeError,
+    IOError,
+    'ascii'
+])
+def test_detect_console_encoding_fallback_to_locale(monkeypatch, encoding):
+    # GH 21552
+    with monkeypatch.context() as context:
+        context.setattr('locale.getpreferredencoding', lambda: 'foo')
+        context.setattr('sys.stdout', MockEncoding(encoding))
+        assert detect_console_encoding() == 'foo'
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize('std,locale', [
+    ['ascii', 'ascii'],
+    ['ascii', Exception],
+    [AttributeError, 'ascii'],
+    [AttributeError, Exception],
+    [IOError, 'ascii'],
+    [IOError, Exception]
+])
+def test_detect_console_encoding_fallback_to_default(monkeypatch, std, locale):
+    # When both the stdout/stdin encoding and locale preferred encoding checks
+    # fail (or return 'ascii', we should default to the sys default encoding.
+    # GH 21552
+    with monkeypatch.context() as context:
+        context.setattr(
+            'locale.getpreferredencoding',
+            lambda: MockEncoding.raise_or_return(locale)
+        )
+        context.setattr('sys.stdout', MockEncoding(std))
+        context.setattr('sys.getdefaultencoding', lambda: 'sysDefaultEncoding')
+        assert detect_console_encoding() == 'sysDefaultEncoding'