diff --git a/poetry.lock b/poetry.lock
index 4c60d24e..12d38d96 100644
--- a/poetry.lock
+++ b/poetry.lock
@@ -68,6 +68,17 @@ files = [
 [package.extras]
 dev = ["freezegun (>=1.0,<2.0)", "pytest (>=6.0)", "pytest-cov"]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "backports-strenum"
+version = "1.3.1"
+description = "Base class for creating enumerated constants that are also subclasses of str"
+optional = false
+python-versions = ">=3.8.6,<3.11"
+files = [
+    {file = "backports_strenum-1.3.1-py3-none-any.whl", hash = "sha256:cdcfe36dc897e2615dc793b7d3097f54d359918fc448754a517e6f23044ccf83"},
+    {file = "backports_strenum-1.3.1.tar.gz", hash = "sha256:77c52407342898497714f0596e86188bb7084f89063226f4ba66863482f42414"},
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "beautifulsoup4"
 version = "4.12.2"
@@ -1011,7 +1022,6 @@ files = [
     {file = "PyYAML-6.0.1-cp311-cp311-win_amd64.whl", hash = "sha256:bf07ee2fef7014951eeb99f56f39c9bb4af143d8aa3c21b1677805985307da34"},
     {file = "PyYAML-6.0.1-cp312-cp312-macosx_10_9_x86_64.whl", hash = "sha256:855fb52b0dc35af121542a76b9a84f8d1cd886ea97c84703eaa6d88e37a2ad28"},
     {file = "PyYAML-6.0.1-cp312-cp312-macosx_11_0_arm64.whl", hash = "sha256:40df9b996c2b73138957fe23a16a4f0ba614f4c0efce1e9406a184b6d07fa3a9"},
-    {file = "PyYAML-6.0.1-cp312-cp312-manylinux_2_17_aarch64.manylinux2014_aarch64.whl", hash = "sha256:a08c6f0fe150303c1c6b71ebcd7213c2858041a7e01975da3a99aed1e7a378ef"},
     {file = "PyYAML-6.0.1-cp312-cp312-manylinux_2_17_x86_64.manylinux2014_x86_64.whl", hash = "sha256:6c22bec3fbe2524cde73d7ada88f6566758a8f7227bfbf93a408a9d86bcc12a0"},
     {file = "PyYAML-6.0.1-cp312-cp312-musllinux_1_1_x86_64.whl", hash = "sha256:8d4e9c88387b0f5c7d5f281e55304de64cf7f9c0021a3525bd3b1c542da3b0e4"},
     {file = "PyYAML-6.0.1-cp312-cp312-win32.whl", hash = "sha256:d483d2cdf104e7c9fa60c544d92981f12ad66a457afae824d146093b8c294c54"},
@@ -1680,4 +1690,4 @@ wandb = ["pandas", "wandb"]
 [metadata]
 lock-version = "2.0"
 python-versions = ">=3.10,<3.13"
-content-hash = "b2f9811050666c2fd310398e92b9b293cfe34f096ac0bc7cd147cb2a3ad6ae22"
+content-hash = "2e0db7634a4683316e82c187456e5aa38bfdccaa4dea6c83ef9f82085c841e5d"
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 200e5e62..d8f06a7e 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ readme = "README.md"
 python = ">=3.10,<3.13"
 typing-extensions = ">=4.5.0"
 numpy = "^1.23.2"
+"backports.strenum" = { version = "^1.3.1", python = "<3.11" }
 
 # wandb dependencies
 pandas = { version = "^1.5.0", optional = true }
diff --git a/ranzen/misc.py b/ranzen/misc.py
index 25b0dd51..150e624a 100644
--- a/ranzen/misc.py
+++ b/ranzen/misc.py
@@ -12,6 +12,11 @@
 
 from ranzen.types import Addable, SizedDataset, Subset
 
+if sys.version_info >= (3, 11):
+    from enum import StrEnum
+else:
+    from backports.strenum import StrEnum
+
 __all__ = [
     "AddDict",
     "Split",
@@ -118,65 +123,6 @@ def str_to_enum(str_: str | E, *, enum: type[E]) -> E:
         )
 
 
-if sys.version_info >= (3, 11):
-    # will be available in python 3.11
-    from enum import StrEnum
-else:
-    #
-    # the following is copied straight from https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/3.11/Lib/enum.py
-    #
-    # DO NOT CHANGE THIS CODE!
-    #
-    class ReprEnum(Enum):
-        """
-        Only changes the repr(), leaving str() and format() to the mixed-in type.
-        """
-
-    _S = TypeVar("_S", bound="StrEnum")
-
-    class StrEnum(str, ReprEnum):
-        """
-        Enum where members are also (and must be) strings
-        """
-
-        _value_: str
-
-        def __new__(cls: type[_S], *values: str) -> _S:
-            "values must already be of type `str`"
-            if len(values) > 3:
-                raise TypeError("too many arguments for str(): %r" % (values,))
-            if len(values) == 1:
-                # it must be a string
-                if not isinstance(values[0], str):  # pyright: ignore
-                    raise TypeError("%r is not a string" % (values[0],))
-            if len(values) >= 2:
-                # check that encoding argument is a string
-                if not isinstance(v1 := values[1], str):  # pyright: ignore
-                    raise TypeError("encoding must be a string, not %r" % (v1,))
-            if len(values) == 3:
-                # check that errors argument is a string
-                if not isinstance(v2 := values[2], str):  # pyright: ignore
-                    raise TypeError("errors must be a string, not %r" % (v2))
-            value = str(*values)
-            member = str.__new__(cls, value)
-            member._value_ = value
-            return member
-
-        def __str__(self) -> str:
-            return str.__str__(self)
-
-        def _generate_next_value_(  # type: ignore
-            name: str,
-            start: int,
-            count: int,
-            last_values: list[Any],
-        ) -> str:
-            """
-            Return the lower-cased version of the member name.
-            """
-            return name.lower()
-
-
 _KT = TypeVar("_KT")
 _VT = TypeVar("_VT", bound=Addable)
 _VT2 = TypeVar("_VT2", bound=Addable)