A federal judge in San Jose has knocked most of the gender discrimination claims brought by two men who used to be editors for Yahoo's website.

Gregory Anderson and Scott Ard sued Yahoo last year claiming they were pushed out of the company by female managers discriminating against men in effort to promote and hire women. They also claimed Yahoo's forced ranking system, which aimed to eliminate low performers and unnecessary levels of management, was a pretense for conducting mass layoffs in violation of state and federal laws designed to protect workers.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Nathanael Cousins of the Northern District of California largely sided with Yahoo in a 31-page order filed under seal Nov. 8 and made public Thursday. Cousins dismissed all the plaintiffs' claims except one: Ard's claim that he faced disparate treatment when passed over when the company hired a woman to fill the position of editor-in-chief of the Autos digital magazine at Yahoo prior to his dismissal.

“Anderson has not provided any evidence that his termination had anything to do with his gender other than his feelings that he was being discriminated against,” Cousins wrote.

Cousins also found there was no evidence to support Ard's claim that he was retaliated against for speaking up for male employees whose scores were adjusted downward during Yahoo's quarterly review process. “Ard did stand up for employees who were being terminated or who received low QPR scores,” Cousins wrote. “However, there is no record of Ard complaining to management about the treatment of men while he worked at Yahoo.”

The case moved to the summary judgment phase just as the discussion about gender diversity in Silicon Valley reached a fever pitch this fall after a Google engineer was fired for writing a memo arguing women are biologically less adept at technology. The ruling comes as numerous tech companies, including Twitter and Google, are facing more traditional gender pay discrimination suits brought on behalf of women.

The former employees' lawyer, Palo Alto-based attorney Jon Parsons, didn't immediately respond to an email message Thursday afternoon. Yahoo's lead lawyer, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius partner Melinda Riechert, directed a request for comment to the company. Yahoo representatives didn't immediately respond.

A federal judge in San Jose has knocked most of the gender discrimination claims brought by two men who used to be editors for Yahoo's website.

Gregory Anderson and Scott Ard sued Yahoo last year claiming they were pushed out of the company by female managers discriminating against men in effort to promote and hire women. They also claimed Yahoo's forced ranking system, which aimed to eliminate low performers and unnecessary levels of management, was a pretense for conducting mass layoffs in violation of state and federal laws designed to protect workers.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Nathanael Cousins of the Northern District of California largely sided with Yahoo in a 31-page order filed under seal Nov. 8 and made public Thursday. Cousins dismissed all the plaintiffs' claims except one: Ard's claim that he faced disparate treatment when passed over when the company hired a woman to fill the position of editor-in-chief of the Autos digital magazine at Yahoo prior to his dismissal.

“Anderson has not provided any evidence that his termination had anything to do with his gender other than his feelings that he was being discriminated against,” Cousins wrote.

Cousins also found there was no evidence to support Ard's claim that he was retaliated against for speaking up for male employees whose scores were adjusted downward during Yahoo's quarterly review process. “Ard did stand up for employees who were being terminated or who received low QPR scores,” Cousins wrote. “However, there is no record of Ard complaining to management about the treatment of men while he worked at Yahoo.”

The case moved to the summary judgment phase just as the discussion about gender diversity in Silicon Valley reached a fever pitch this fall after a Google engineer was fired for writing a memo arguing women are biologically less adept at technology. The ruling comes as numerous tech companies, including Twitter and Google, are facing more traditional gender pay discrimination suits brought on behalf of women.

The former employees' lawyer, Palo Alto-based attorney Jon Parsons, didn't immediately respond to an email message Thursday afternoon. Yahoo's lead lawyer, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius partner Melinda Riechert, directed a request for comment to the company. Yahoo representatives didn't immediately respond.