diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 3c09fb6264871ee7040c3f4215b69d9a8a951e87..35778dfe1f645a3478b6dcaf695873261c103e60 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ find_package(Conduit REQUIRED)
 
 option(ENABLE_TESTS "Enable testing to ensure contra is working correctly" ON)
 option(ENABLE_DEVELOPER_TESTS "Enable cppcheck and cpplint tests, only interesting for developers" OFF)
-option(WITH_PYTHON_BINDINGS "Create python bindings for the library" OFF)
+option(WITH_PYTHON_BINDINGS "Create python bindings for the library" ON)
 
 if (NOT ENABLE_TESTS)
   message(STATUS "ENABLE_TESTS was set to `OFF` cmake will skip the creation of all tests")