Scott Ard, a former editor for Yahoo, is now suing the company claiming he was the victim of anti-male bias when he was fired in 2015

A media executive who was fired from Yahoo last year is suing CEO Marissa Mayer, accusing her of running a campaign to purge the company of male employees.

The lawsuit filed by Scott Ard in federal district court in San Jose this week states: 'Mayer encouraged and fostered the use of an employee performance-rating system to accommodate management's subjective biases and personal opinions, to the detriment of Yahoo's male employees.'

According to the Mercury News, Ard worked for Yahoo for three-and-a-half years until January 2015 and claims that large numbers of men were fired after a performance-rating was introduced by Mayer.

Ard claims a quarterly review process brought in by Marissa Mayer (pictured) when she started at Yahoo in 2012 was manipulated by female managers

Ard claims that a gender bias exists within the business, and that female managers were able to manipulate the review process in favor of women

A spokeswoman for the company, Carolyn Clark, was quoted in the newspaper stating Yahoo couldn't comment on pending litigation, but insisting the company conducted a performance-review based on 'fairness.'

'Our performance-review process was developed to allow employees at all levels of the company to receive meaningful, regular and actionable feedback from others,' Clark said.

'We believe this process allows our team to develop and do their best work. Our performance-review process also allows for high performers to engage in increasingly larger opportunities at our company, as well as for low performers to be transitioned out.'

Kathy Savitt, left, former chief marketing officer, and Megan Liberman, right, editor-in-chief of Yahoo News are also mentioned in the lawsuit as two executives who made a push to have more female managers promoted at the company

Ard says he did not receive any satisfactory reason as to why he was fired from the company and he was not allowed to appeal

The Mercury News notes that two other female executives are accused in the lawsuit of discriminating on the basis of gender.

Kathy Savitt, former chief marketing officer, and Megan Liberman, editor-in-chief of Yahoo News are cited as managers who made a concerted effort to have more females enter management.

The lawsuit notes that when Savitt began at Yahoo, less than 20 per cent of the top managers were female, yet 18 months later, more than 80 per cent were female.

'Savitt has publicly expressed support for increasing the number of women in media and has intentionally hired and promoted women because of their gender, while terminating, demoting or laying off male employees because of their gender.

'Of the approximately 16 senior-level editorial employees hired or promoted by Savitt… in approximately an 18-month period, 14 of them, or 87 per cent, were female,' the suit states.

Ard, who began working at Yahoo in 2011, was in charge of the company's media section and had received 'fully satisfactory' performance reviews since he had begun the job.

Then, suddenly, his role as head of editorial programming for Yahoo's home page was given to a woman Liberman had recently hired, the suit said.

Ard claims a review process was used to justify firing hundreds of male employees, including him, without giving them proper notice or providing the paperwork on which the decision was based (Marissa Mayer, pictured)

Just a few months later, in January 2015, Liberman told Ard he was fired during a performance review phone call because 'his performance was not satisfactory.'

When the call was finished, Ard requested a copy of his performance review and tried to appeal his sacking but his requests were denied and he was 'ordered to turn in his laptop and depart the premises immediately.'

Ard also alleges that managers would arbitrarily change scores of employees they had no contact with.

In the lawsuit Ard states on one occasion Liberman 'unilaterally lowered' the scores of three men whose performance Ard had evaluated, while she maintained the scores of two women.'

By using such arbitrary appraisal techniques, Yahoo was able to fire a number of workers over a short period of time, he says.

'Marissa Mayer became CEO on a wave of optimism and then engaged in a sleight of hand to terminate large numbers of employees without announcing a single layoff,' the suit states.