diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/cpp-utilities/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/cpp-utilities/default.nix
index 45a87690e19..c3731c0e7a7 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/cpp-utilities/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/cpp-utilities/default.nix
@@ -22,6 +22,9 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   buildInputs = lib.optionals stdenv.isDarwin [
     iconv # needed on Darwin, see https://github.com/Martchus/cpp-utilities/issues/4
   ];
+
+  cmakeFlags = ["-DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=ON"];
+
   # Otherwise, tests fail since the resulting shared object libc++utilities.so is only available in PWD of the make files
   preCheck = ''
     checkFlagsArray+=(