diff --git a/astroid/modutils.py b/astroid/modutils.py
index e2f6e886a2..28f0fe8372 100644
--- a/astroid/modutils.py
+++ b/astroid/modutils.py
@@ -46,6 +46,7 @@
 import os
 import platform
 import sys
+import sysconfig
 import types
 from distutils.errors import DistutilsPlatformError  # pylint: disable=import-error
 from distutils.sysconfig import get_python_lib  # pylint: disable=import-error
@@ -146,7 +147,7 @@ def _posix_path(path):
         # https://github.com/PyCQA/pylint/issues/712#issuecomment-163178753
         STD_LIB_DIRS.add(_posix_path("lib64"))
 
-EXT_LIB_DIRS = {get_python_lib(), get_python_lib(True)}
+EXT_LIB_DIRS = {sysconfig.get_path("purelib"), sysconfig.get_path("platlib")}
 IS_JYTHON = platform.python_implementation() == "Jython"
 BUILTIN_MODULES = dict.fromkeys(sys.builtin_module_names, True)