diff --git a/lib/rubygems/package.rb b/lib/rubygems/package.rb
index 49cdf98b31..16cda5affe 100644
--- a/lib/rubygems/package.rb
+++ b/lib/rubygems/package.rb
@@ -99,6 +99,11 @@ class Gem::Package
 
   attr_reader :files
 
+  ##
+  # Reference to the gem being packaged.
+
+  attr_reader :gem
+
   ##
   # The security policy used for verifying the contents of this package.
 
diff --git a/test/rubygems/test_gem_package.rb b/test/rubygems/test_gem_package.rb
index e07304e9a5..f2f712ebe0 100644
--- a/test/rubygems/test_gem_package.rb
+++ b/test/rubygems/test_gem_package.rb
@@ -1093,6 +1093,11 @@ class TestGemPackage < Gem::Package::TarTestCase
     assert_equal @spec, package.spec
   end
 
+  def test_gem_attr
+    package = Gem::Package.new(@gem)
+    assert_equal(package.gem, @gem)
+  end
+
   def test_spec_from_io
     # This functionality is used by rubygems.org to extract spec data from an
     # uploaded gem before it is written to storage.