diff --git a/Lib/xmlrpc/client.py b/Lib/xmlrpc/client.py
index 4de4c2b27dc..19d4d6986fc 100644
--- a/Lib/xmlrpc/client.py
+++ b/Lib/xmlrpc/client.py
@@ -1297,8 +1297,12 @@ def send_content(self, connection, request_body):
 
     def parse_response(self, response):
         # read response data from httpresponse, and parse it
-        if response.getheader("Content-Encoding", "") == "gzip":
-            stream = GzipDecodedResponse(response)
+        # Check for new http response object, otherwise it is a file object.
+        if hasattr(response, 'getheader'):
+            if response.getheader("Content-Encoding", "") == "gzip":
+                stream = GzipDecodedResponse(response)
+            else:
+                stream = response
         else:
             stream = response