diff --git a/lib/ansible/modules/packaging/language/pip.py b/lib/ansible/modules/packaging/language/pip.py
index 19665e8f13..40bd64ffb2 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/modules/packaging/language/pip.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/modules/packaging/language/pip.py
@@ -219,7 +219,7 @@ def _get_cmd_options(module, cmd):
 
 
 def _get_full_name(name, version=None):
-    if version is None:
+    if version is None or version == "":
         resp = name
     else:
         resp = name + '==' + version
diff --git a/test/integration/targets/pip/tasks/pip.yml b/test/integration/targets/pip/tasks/pip.yml
index 05af8b8d7a..3ae796fe6d 100644
--- a/test/integration/targets/pip/tasks/pip.yml
+++ b/test/integration/targets/pip/tasks/pip.yml
@@ -256,3 +256,17 @@
   assert:
     that:
       - not pip_install_empty.changed
+
+# https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/41043
+- name: do not consider an empty string as a version
+  pip:
+    name: q
+    state: present
+    version: ""
+    virtualenv: "{{ output_dir }}/pipenv"
+  register: pip_install_empty_version_string
+
+- name: ensure that task installation did not fail
+  assert:
+    that:
+      - pip_install_empty_version_string is successful