Court Rejects Tech Bro Gender Discrimination Suit Against Yahoo

A lawsuit accusing tech giant Yahoo of favoring women over men in the workplace has been dismissed.

Scott Ard, a former senior editorial director at Yahoo, alleged in the suit that female employees were routinely evaluated favorably to male employees, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The case was dismissed “with prejudice” in U.S. District Court in San Jose, which means it cannot be brought again.

Last month, a judge ruled in Yahoo’s favor in a related gender discrimination lawsuit brought by another man against the company. In that case, Gregory Anderson, an editor fired from Yahoo in 2014, alleged in part that the company “systematically favored women in hiring, promotions and layoffs,” according to the New York Times.

Ard’s claims of gender discrimination centered on Yahoo’s standard quarterly reviews process, in which employees are given a number rating. He alleged that “when he nominated three men to receive an ‘exceeds’ rating on their review, a higher-ranking female executive rejected his request and lowered the scores,” says the Chronicle. “Meanwhile, a woman he had nominated for the same ‘exceeds’ rating received it, even though he had given her a lower ranking than the men.”

Ard took issue with the fact that 14 of the 16 senior editorial employees hired within an 18-month span were women, according to the suit. The lawsuit also argued that Yahoo rejected male candidates for the editor-in-chief position at Autos Magazine in favor of a “less qualified” woman. Ultimately, Ard was fired for “poor performance,” according to the Chronicle.

It’s true that Yahoo has a reputation within the bro-fest of Silicon Valley for championing diversity, particularly when it comes to women. But the company’s most recently released diversity stats show that—as of 2016, at least—the workforce was still predominantly male. So, if Yahoo is systematically discriminating against men, it’s not doing a very good job of it.