Yahoo Exec Claims He Was Fired Because He Was Male

Embattled Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has been sued over allegations she deliberately favored women over men, the San Jose Mercury News reports. Scott Ard claims his 2015 firing from Yahoo's media department was motivated by his gender, and Meyer's wish to see more women in leadership positions within the company. The lawsuit also accuses two other female Yahoo executives of gender discrimination: former marketing chief Kathy Savitt and Yahoo News editor Megan Liberman. Ard's lawsuit alleges that 87% of the hires and promotions handed out by Savitt were to female employees, that Liberman altered performance reviews to favor women, and that Meyer put the system in place which enabled all of this.

A Yahoo spokeswoman would not comment on the pending lawsuit but generally defended the company's performance-review system as fair. Previously, a company-wide diversity report revealed that the percentage of women in leadership roles at Yahoo ticked up a percentage point to 24% between 2014 and 2015, CNET notes. It's not a good time for Yahoo, which has struck a deal to be purchased by Verizon, to be facing more negative press—in the past month, the ailing media giant has been in the news for enabling NSA surveillance and concealing massive hacks. (Another former male employee sued earlier this year.)